A Reaper's Game -Part Two: The Skyward Offensive-
by Storm Reaper VII
Summary: After taking an entire month to clear only the first of Aincrad's One Hundred floors, the Grim Reaper sets his sights to the levels above him; confronting dangerous creatures and colorful individuals along every step of the way… which is to say nothing of the chaos he faces as Final Rebellion's new guild leader.
1. Champion

' _The launch may have been the the start of_ _Sword Art Online_ _, but this is where it truly begins; where my castle in the sky is given true meaning… a possible hero for the game.'_

A man is dressed in a white lab coat with a white button-up shirt along with black slacks with a belt, black shoes, and a black tie. His hair is dark and slightly greying, cut short enough to where it stays out of his eyes, but full enough to cover his scalp completely. His eyes are dark as he stares at the scene before him trying to capture every detail as time appeared frozen around him.

It consisted of a man dressed in red and black with eyes of differing color, both sharpened in focus as he rushed forward at the massive rust red form of the first of the Floor Bosses. His clothing and weaponry may not have been so outlandish in this setting… had the man in the lab coat remembered programing either into the game.

"Forward the scene at five percent speed," he spoke. The scene then started playing out before him both fighters charging towards the other with weapons held ready. Despite the demand for a slower speed, both fighter and monster didn't appear to be moving that much slower than if they'd been at human speeds. Keeping a careful eye before him, the observer watched until he got to the point he wanted to see. "Hold here."

As the scene paused, he walked around to get a better view of the man in red's weapon. At this part it was showing some signs of changing form, like how its handle was slightly extended already. The blade looked slightly curved at the effect as well, but it was hard to tell as blade and red flames were expelling from his arm and weapon.

"Remove the designated black fire effects and begin the scene from the previous pause point. This time set the replay at two percent speed," he ordered. Nothing seemed to happen. "...Report."

"Analyzing… Analyzing… Analyzation complete. Conclusion: Black Fire effect is unable to be found in database therefore system is unable to interfere with the effect's code. Replay from previous save as requested?"

"Not just yet," the man told the mechanical voice as his eyes slowly narrowed. "The black fire effect from _Ilfang's_ earlier breath attack… are the two one in the same?"

"Analyzing… Hypothesis: There is a possibility, due to system's inability to access either effect codes; any accessible data responds only to basic game mechanics; damage, hit box, status affects, critical-"

"Understood, understood, send me the data if you must…" the man said before placing his face into his palm and giving off a tired groan. "And the player himself? What do we know from his data?

"Searching… Player data is not found."

"But… that should be impossible… unless he somehow has his data at a _Core_ level of clearance, but that itself can't be the case," the man thought to himself. _Core_ level data was the code for _Sword Art Online_ that couldn't be accessed, even he couldn't view it due to the risk it presented. If even a few bytes of that particular data was tampered with, it could easily spend the end for his entire project. "This man's becoming more of a headache the more I see of him…" Unexpectedly, he then smiled. "But then… I did want things to be interesting."

He then scratched his chin, trying to decide his next move going forward. While this floor had created quite the spectacle to kick off the games and add plenty of tension amongst the players, he was worried that this was too much too fast. If any other areas of the game showed similar interference, the game might have too high of a difficulty for the players to actually survive. There would be plenty of casualties down the line and they'd already lost a huge amount of their force on just the first level… he could adapt what he could of his game so that they'd at least reach the climax.

"Tap into all available data for Floor Two. I want any information pertaining to changes towards that Floor, mainly towards its main boss and any changes or interference that might have been presented by this subject."

"Searching… Result: Information regarding changes to the floor boss is currently inaccessible."

"...Excuse me?"

 _ **THE SKYWARD OFFENSIVE**_

 _ **Sword VII: Champion**_

"Out of all the things this damn game could simulate, why did rain have to be one of them?" Ragna grumbled to himself as he walked through the intense downpour on the second floor of SAO. Every step forward the Reaper took sent another splash of water up his pant legs and proceed to soak him further. Even his gravity defying hair had been dampened to the point where it was falling all over in one of his only two hair styles. "Honestly…"

His stomach then gave a small growl and he submitted that he needed to eat soon; he'd gotten up early in the hopes of finding the boss dungeon and moving onto the next floor before any players did something stupid, but the dungeon he'd managed to clear wasn't the one he'd been looking for. He'd call it a waste of time, but monsters meant experience, experience meant levels, and the levels meant that he could acquire his old abilities and get stronger with his stats. _Ilfang_ had only been the first of the floor bosses and Ragna felt like he needed to be at the top of his game if they were going to get through the Floor boss battles without incident.

Heading into a small town, he was surprised to see that it was mostly deserted. This was only the second floor, so he'd figured that most of the player base would have migrated up here since he'd cleared the first one. Sure this was a small town on one of the corners of the map, but even in this weather there should have been at least a few players around. Walking around for a moment in search of place to eat at, he instead found a familiar hooded figure.

"Good ta see ya again Raggy," Argo the Rat said as she approached her guild leader with a smirk. Ragna managed to ignore her calling him 'Raggy' due to being more jealous of her hood at the moment. "F'rgot yer umbrella?"

"You know the game doesn't give us umbrellas," he reminded her with a sigh.

"I know, I know, jes teasin' ya," Argo said before turning down the street. "Know a good place ta eat if you're hoping ta get outta the rain."

"That's the best idea I've heard all damn day," Ragna admitted as his Info broker led him to the place. "So… got any fresh info for me?"

"Plenty, and it's a bit of an odd set," she said as the two headed into the foundation. "Table fer two."

"I'm guessing that means I'm paying," he noted with a groan as he shook his head, sending rainwater flying everywhere. Argo flinched as some of the rainwater hit her, unable to not compare Ragna to a dog that had just gotten out of the rain.

"It's the cost of the info; still givin' ya a discount," Argo told him with a sigh.

"Speaking of which, you're part of my guild now how does info bargaining work?" he asked.

"Meh, I'm not exactly gonna be charging you a fortune, but if you want me ta look into something hard to find and specific, then I'm gonna need some col fer funding," Argo explained with a shrug. "Aside from that though, jes keep feedin' me and we'll be fair."

"...All right then, what have you got for me today?" Ragna said as he figured this was more or less what the two had already been doing.

"It's weird, but… they already found the floor boss's chamber," Argo told him leaving Ragna to cross his arms.

"That so? Even though we've only been here for a few days?" he asked, partially impressed but more concerned than anything.

"Even though," Argo told him. "It's even more surprisin' since this level wasn't part a the beta game."

"Meaning the rest of the game's probably different as well," Ragna summarized, not that it would have mattered much to him since he wasn't a part of _SAO's_ beta run. "So… they saw what it was and ran I'm hoping?"

"...That's the thing though, they actually managed to beat the darn thing when they found it," Argo told him. Ragna raised an eyebrow.

"So… we spend a month on floor one… and you're telling me we've clear Floor Two in less than a quarter of the time… even though there's not a beta guide out there that could help us here?" Ragna demanded. "How the hell...?"

"Might've been just the fact that everyone was still pretty fresh to the game and now we have _some_ idea of what to look for on this floor… still surprisin' though," she admitted. "Got tha raid details too."

"Let's hear them then," Ragna told her as one of the serving girls came by. "Tea for me, and a breakfast plate of hashbrowns and ham."

"Nothing fer me just yet thanks," Argo told the serving girl, who only nodded before leaving. "Didn't even have breakfast before ya headed into tha fields? Yer crazy…" she muttered. "Not as crazy as the folks that beat the boss though. There were ten of 'em, and that's not a whole lot for a raid party… 'specially on a floor boss."

"And out of the ten… how many of them made it out alive?" the Reaper had to ask.

"No casualties," Argo told him. "They had to use some higher grade healing items to stay alive and there were a couple a' close calls, but a basic boss strategy was all they needed ta bring th' boss down."

"And… there was nothing like what happened with _Ilfang_ " Ragna had to ask. He already had his answer though; if anything like that _had_ happened there wouldn't have been any survivors.

"You kiddin' me? They came back didn't they?" Argo asked. "But yeah, the info I dug up said _nothing_ about fully healing, new abilities… hell, tha boss didn't even get an overpower breath attack… Guess _Ilfang_ was a floor boss exception, not a standard.

"That's… good to hear," Ragna decided honestly. ' _Besides, if the news on how easy the second boss was circles around enough, then people won't believe any of those larger than life stories of me soloing Ilfang; it's a win-win._ ' "So… floor three is open then?"

"It is, but some players don't know about it yet or are gonna to keep exploring since there's a lot left of this floor that hasn't been touched yet," the _Info Broker_ told him before opening her menu and sending some data his way. "There's some basic info fer a few of the more hidden dungeons on this floor if yer interested."

"That depends, how much is it going to cost me?"

"How about one of 'em coffee cakes?" Argo asked, looking through the breakfast options.

"Like hell; I'm drawing the line at one slice," Ragna denied.

"Yeah, yeah, boss," Argo said with a snarky chuckle. "Think I'll take it ta go though; Floor Three's a-waiting fer me and someone's gotta get in those cracks fer yer info."

"Be careful," Ragna said with a low voice, almost making it more of an order than a reminder.

"I'm always careful," Argo told her guild leader with a roll of her eyes. "Yer the reckless one that I worry about."

"...At least you care," the Reaper decided to snarkily add with a smirk as Argo scowled at her guild leader. Soon Argo had left, giving Ragna time to stretch in his seat and give a yawn as he waited for his meal to arrive. Getting a crick out of his neck, he slowly allowed his body to relax.

"Hey, got a minute?" he heard a somewhat gruff voice ask. Opening one of his eyes, he saw that he'd been approached by a player that had been sitting in a table off in the corner going through his menu when the Reaper had arrived. This player had a tall and intimidating form and carried a long scimitar held at his right hip in a dark grey scabbard. His light armor was a strange mix of mostly white, but with some black highlights in the shoulder pads and some of the straps. He had skin that was a few shades darker than Agil's and frizzy black hair.

"Plenty of seats available," Ragna said as he glanced around to the mostly empty restaurant before staring directly back at the guy. It took a few moments, but when Ragna saw that he didn't shy away or avert his serious gave. Giving a nonchalant nod, the person took a seat across from him. "You're not expecting me to pay are you?"

"No, just overheard you talking to that info broker," the man said seriously. "She said she had information on a few of the dungeons so I wanted to see if we could strike a deal."

"And why not deal with my _Info Broker_ directly? She probably has info on some of the secrets of the dungeons that I wouldn't have," Ragna tried to reason and correct the man.

"Because then I'd have to go and form a team to raid it; if I talk to you I'll have both the info and a potential partner for the dungeon," the guy said, a small smile forming. "Ah, but I guess I better introduce myself. Call me Vance; I'm one of the rare few gamers here from the Americas that can luckily speak Japanese."

"...Ragna," the Reaper responded in kind. America… he might have remembered hearing about the country from Jubei, some sort of democracy that could he been formed long before the dark war, but he also might've been trying to connect dots that weren't there.

"Cool tag name, that your usual one or is this the first game that you've used it?" Vance asked, only leaving Ragna confused at the question. "Eh, that's neither here nor there. What matters is that you have the info I want… so how about it? We'll take on a dungeon and split whatever we find fifty-fifty. That way I might find a grinding spot and maybe a few materials to upgrade my gear and you'll get some make more headway with someone else in your team; my skills won't disappoint you."

"...Guess I got no real reason to turn you down," Ragna muttered to himself. "Alright, long as you pull your weight and don't screw around you can stick with me."

"Awesome, now you just gotta form a team and it's official," Vance told Ragna right before the serving girl came back to the table bring Ragna's breakfast plate. "Mind grabbing me a big cinnamon roll and a mug of hot chocolate to wash it down?" The serving girl nodded and bowed before heading off to grab the order.

"...That's… a lot of sugar…" Ragna decided to point out, not standing on ceremony as he began digging into his own meal.

"The death game's already a big enough hell without the few sweets I can get," Vance told Ragna with a shrug and he leaned back on the chair so that only its back legs were touching the ground. "Besides, it's not like we're going to get fat eating only desert; that's the one thing I don't have to worry about in here."

' _Wonder if I'd gain weight if I ate like that though, or if I'd even lose weight if I stopped eating altogether,'_ Ragna thought to himself before throwing the thought away as he continued his meal as normal. ' _Nah… not like I'd want to risk my figure after all the hell I went through to build this muscle, even if I'm curious._ '

 _Later -Dungeon Entrance-_

Like most of the dungeons on second floor of _Sword Art Online_ , this one was a cave formed into the side of one of the larger mountains. Had Ragna not had his enhanced sense or Argo's information, he figured that this place would have been easy to miss due to the mix of a naturally forming rock formation and thick foliage covering it. Even though the cave appeared to be dark from the outside, like most of the dungeons there would be enough light around the dungeon to tell the most basic details out, even if it didn't have an obvious source.

"So... now that we made it here, how do you want to do this?" Vance asked Ragna with as he looked at the entrance. "You or me; who's taking the point here?"

"You are; you said that you'd pull your weight so here's your chance," the Reaper told him bluntly.

"...That or you're afraid I'm going to stab you in the back and run off with your coat," the scimitar user said before giving a humorous chuckle. "Alright, my lead it is. Just don't leave me out to dry in there."

Rolling his eyes, Ragna headed in after his current teammate and entered the dungeon. The place was a labyrinth of jagged rocky turns that split of at multiple points. When Ragna and Vance hit the end of one of them, they got their first sense of the monsters of this dungeon.

"Snakes… heh, what else would it be?" Vance said he brought his sword out. One of the venomous creatures tried to lunge at him, but his dodge was well timed and he managed to strike the monster with his blade and sent it flying back. Another of the three tried a simple lunge, but Vance managed to bring his sword around and cut this one again before following up with a sword skill that caused his scimitar to glow pale white and cut it down for good. The final one was still recovering from the first attack when Vance stabbed his blade downward and killed the monster where it slithered. "That's my two, how's about you take the last-?"

 _ **CRASH!**_

Vance's words died in his mouth as Ragna's blood-red _Blast_ skill smashed into the creature and destroyed it with one attack. The force of that single attack was so great that Vance swore he felt a strong tremor from it, something that the game should have prevented from generating. Taking his sword back and putting it on his belt Ragna went into his results screen.

"...Showoff," Vance muttered, now giving Ragna his turn to shoot a smirk back at him, though his was byfar more snarky. "I guess I should just be glad that they didn't bite us; poison takes a toll on your health points and it takes time for it to wear off… We should be careful here, yeah?"

"If it saves me a pain in my ass I'll cut 'em all down in one go," Ragna told Vance with certainly before turning around. "This ain't the path, so it looks like we've gotta backtrack… Starting to wish I gotten the map data for place too."

"Same, but I guess we'll have to settle for treasure hunting instead of hitting the boss first thing," Vance decided as the two start walking through the caverns. "I mean the main reason I wanted to go to this place was to get decent drops and maybe find a chest or two if we were lucky enough. I'm not complaining just yet."

"Maybe… I just don't have a lot of time to kill here," Ragna muttered. Vance gave him something of an odd look before sticking back and smirking.

"If you want to be so serious about this then go ahead and start taking point yourself," he told the Reaper, who only rolled his eyes as the two progressed ever onwards.

Their time spent in the cave lead to more than a few encounters, each of them dealt with similar ease and expertise as the first one. For his vague and hard to understand attitude, Vance didn't appear to be slacking at all and appeared to take a style similar to Ragna's; a risky one. He'd often place himself in the heat of battle, even if it meant that he was being flanked by the opposition. It should have been a risky move, and though he often came close Ragna noticed that he never actually took a hit… Making him all the more of an oddball.

"Hey looks like we've finally managed to find ourselves a chest," Vance said as the two came to yet another dead end, but this one offering the two of them a better prize in return. He was about to open it, but instead to a good step back. "Do me a favor will you, and watch my back? Sometimes these chests are just traps that summon a ton of monsters for you to fight. If you're not at a decent level in the dungeon, they can wipe you out in an instant."

"Fine, I'll keep my eyes open," Ragna told him, finding it slightly odd that Vance was trusting him to watch his back when he'd made it clear earlier that he wouldn't have given him the same trust. Vance then opened the chest revealing…

"A shield…" Vance said before sighing. "It's useless to us, but maybe one of us can make some Col selling this thing… oh well, better than an ambush I guess."

"You're not taking it for yourself?" Ragna questioned as the two continued their trek through the dungeon. "But if you're use a weapon in one hand then your other one should be for using a shield, right?"

"Normally yeah, but while having shield can improve your defense and your blocking capabilities it also limits your movement speed and can sometimes get in the way of your offense if you're using a faster weapon like a rapier… And considering how hard some of the enemies like to hit, blocking attacks can sometimes be just as difficult as dodging if you're wearing lighter armor." Vance then gave a cocky smile as he sent the shield to his storage. "Besides, fighting without a shield just looks cooler."

"...Whatever," Ragna muttered disdainfully at his teammates carefree nature before glancing up ahead and noticing the that the hallway led to a rather open chamber. "Looks like we've got the boss chamber up ahead…" he noted as he stopped walking forward.

"What? You think we should turn back and avoid it?" Vance asked him.

' _It's not the worst idea honestly…'_ Ragna thought to himself. ' _This guy might be good, but I have a feeling that he's way too cocky for his own good. If he goes in there and I let my guard down he could get killed… And I'm not sure how I feel about what I can really do.'_

"We should-" Ragna was about to tell him as he exited his internal monologue, only to see that Vance was already inside the chamber and looking around. Gritting his teeth, the Reaper headed in after his idiot of a partner. Vance already had his weapon drawn, but he seemed more confused than concern as he looked around the empty chamber.

"...Either we've got a boss that's especially good at hiding itself or there's nothing here," the scimitar user said with a sigh as Ragna only crossed his arms.

"Lucky for you it's the latter one," Ragna told him with a harshness to his tone while Vance opened up his menu. "Must mean someone already came in and beat the thing before we did… meaning it'll take some time to respawn and we're both still alive."

"Yeah, I guess a boss _might've_ been a bit much for the just two of us…" Vance admitted with a well meaning smile, right as a screen appeared in front of Ragna. "If we were just your run of the mill players."

 _Vance is challenging you to a Duel_

"Sorry for deceiving you, but I needed a way to get you alone. I might not have gotten a boss prize, but a shot at you is what I've really wanted... _Grim Reaper._ "

"...Don't read too much into that name," Ragna told him with a scowl before looking at the screen in front of him. "So another duel…"

"Good that you've been in one before; it saves me the trouble of explaining it to you," Vance told him as he rested his saber's blunt side on his shoulder and waited for Ragna to accept the challenge, which the Reaper was showing no interest of doing… yet he didn't decline immediately either. "...Ever hear of something called the _Dive Fighter Championship?_ "

"Afraid I haven't, what's that got to do with this?" Ragna demanded as he scowled and kept his distance.

"Give me a second and I'll explain," Vance said with a sigh before smirking at the Reaper. "The rumors about you weren't lying; you're as blunt a man as one can get." Seeing that his opponent wasn't amused, Vance continued. "When the _Nerve Gear_ first launched there was a lot of reserve for the kind of technology it was putting on the common market. _Sword Art Online_ is a ground-breaking idea on several levels don't get me wrong, but it's not the first thing that was ever made with this technology… that's where a little game called _Dream Brawl_ took off."

"...Sounds like it's close to your heart," Ragna said, as he crossed his arms, managing to follow the story thusfar.

"For me the 'Dream' part of the title especially stuck," Vance told him. "I'm not exactly a short guy and I don't appear weak at least… but I got a muscle disease that makes fatigued before I even start to hit the reps... Growing up I always wanted to be in the fighting ring, no matter how impossible it sounded for me… that game was a dream come true. It started buggy as hell at first, most of the time you couldn't last 10 minutes without experiencing lag… but then they patched it, they improved it, they perfected it… then they expanded. Not long later I was playing a version of the game where you could do one-on-one fights with weapons. A couple of the skills from that game actually made their way here."

"...What about this _Dive Fighter Championship_ that you've been talking about?" Ragna asked.

"Oh, did I grab your attention after all?"

"...Maybe a bit." He wasn't giving any real ground to his opponent this as the challenge sign still stood before him.

"Got a real cold heart, eh? ...At least on the surface," Vance said to him. "The _Dive Fighter Championship_ was the first tournament to ever bring the tech to the running grounds… and you're looking _Dream Brawl's_ reigning champ; master of fisticuffs, weapons, and even guns," Vance said as he pointed to himself proudly before scratching the bridge of his nose. "Then again… being the champ is what got _SAO's_ developer to give me my beta copy of this game as part of my prize and landed me in this mess."

"Tragic," the red-coat told him without pity.

"No kidding. But now that brings us to you _Grim Reaper…_ I've heard rumors about your fight with _Ilfang_ back on floor one, but I gotta see what you can do for myself."

"Why? So you can see if you're still the best? That's all this is about?" Ragna asked, starting to grow disappointed with Vance.

"Hardly, I want to fight you so I can keep myself alive," Vance told him with more ferocity this time. "If all I'm fighting here is stupid AI then I'll get complacent. If I get complacent here I'm dead…" Vance stared Ragna down with harsh eyes. "I thought that I'd gotten lucky finding the second floor boss, but even when I pulled a risky raid on it right then and there I didn't find any of the intensity of a one-on-one brawl with an actual person as my opponent… That's why I came to you."

 _(Cue_ _ **Metal Gear RISING**_ _The Only Thing I Know For Real EXTENDED)_

"And you couldn't just ask me back in town?" Ragna asked before smirking and finally pressing the _Accept_ button on the screen. He decided he'd just roll with it, nothing was on the line for him here anyways. Walking around his opponent as the timer counted down, he unhooked his blade from his belt. "Fine then, something tells me this fight is only for the two of us to know about."

"Right! That way nothing's held back! We'll both take this fight to our graves!" Vance said as he readied his scimitar, Ragna could easily _feel_ the overpowering excitement burning off of his opponent.

"...Sounds like a _Reaper's Promise_ ," were the finally words said as the countdown finally ended and the two surged forward.

Their first contact was simple stick of blades against each other more of a chance to test the other's strength. Unsurprisingly Ragna seemed to win the clash and managed to shake Vance's footing, but the scimitar user managed to roll out of the way at the last instant and dodge the Reaper's follow up strike before leaping upward into the air to dodge the third slash.

Using as a sword skill to boost his attack power, Vance slashed was once more at the Reaper only for the blades to clash against each other. Using as much speed as he could, Vance pulled his blade back right before lunging into a stab. Ragna brought his blade around and forced the scimitar to scrape off his sword's edge, right before putting his foot out to trip Vance as he passed him by. Vance responded by still sending his scimitar into the air with a high sweeping motion that Ragna was forced to lean back to avoid. The Reaper then tried to catch his opponent with another sword swing, but instead Vance managed to spin into a sword skill at the last second, result in another clash.

Almost as it both fighters were in sync with the other's fighting, both activated a lunging skill which resulted in a powerful weapon clash as they passed by one another before quickly turning and slamming their blade's into the other's yet again. Vance tried to go for a third attack, but Ragna beat him with a faster punch to the face using his free hand. Vance stumbled back for all of an instant before shifting to a skill empowered haymaker which Ragna guarded against, surprising the Reaper as it actually force him to skid back a few feet.

"You've got me against the wall…" Vance admitted with he charged forward with another lunging sword skill, this time leave Ragna to leap out the way. "Just the way I wanted it!" Ragna went for yet another punch to the face, but this time Vance we've around Ragna's side to get behind him. Ragna responded with a haymaker kick as he turned his body and left his opponent to leap out of the way. "But come on! Where's that special skill that the first raiders keep going on about!? Aren't I worth at least one of those!?"

"Maybe you are, but I'm more than just a couple of fancy tricks!," Ragna muttered as he rushed, forward going much faster than he had just a few moments prior. Vance barely had any time to block as Ragna's skilless attack sent him sliding back. He didn't have any time to recover either as Ragna follow up with a second upwards strike that sent his blade up, unable to guard its owner. Ragna then sent an uppercut to Vance's head and knocked him into the air. He paused for all of a moment before roundhouse kicking Vance in the chest and sending him flying.

Vance barely managed a keep a solid hold on his weapon as his back slammed into the rough rocky wall. Just as he barely managed to avoid Ragna blade as it impaled the rock where his head had been just a split second before. He tried turning into a desperate haymaker to get some ground back, but all Ragna had to do was take a single step back as he roughly yanked his impaled blade from the wall.

Ragna then swung downwards and the two blades entered a struggle as each force pressed fiercely against the other. Both fighters glared harshly into the other's eyes… they were a still for a moment before giving ground and stepping back right before throwing their final attack. Vance's overhead strike radiated with energy from the sword skill… but was ultimately beaten as Ragna's upwards strike knocked him off of his feet once more, this time finally forcing the blade out of his hands. Vance then crashed to the ground, his saber spinning several times in the air before impaling itself in rocky floor mere inches from his face.

(End Theme)

"...I… I lost?" Vance asked as he laid on his back on the rocky dungeon floor, staring up at the dungeon ceiling.

"Don't try and play the victim; I gave you exactly what you wanted," Ragna reminded as he brought his own blade back and set it back on his belt. Vance didn't saw anything for a long moment, only continuing to lay on the ground and stare up at the ceiling like there was an answer up there he was looking for. "...Still, hell of a fight."

"Liar," Vance muttered, surprising the Reaper as he declined the credit he'd been rightfully given. "Even towards the end you were slowing your attacks slightly on most of your slashes. Even with as unorthodox a fighting style as you've got I could tell that was intentional… you were holding back on me the whole fight."

"And you could tell all of that through all of the hell I was putting you through?" Ragna asked with an eyebrow raised before he started chuckling. "You're even better than I gave you credit for."

"It doesn't mean that I don't still have a ways to go," the scimitar user muttered as he rose to his feet and yanked his blade out of the ground. "Gotta say… even after losing I'm still excited at the idea. You're something else buddy; just let me know whenever you're up for a rematch."

"...Yeah, I'll be sure to keep you in mind," Ragna decided, figuring he could continue open up a little. After the two had broken from their team and exchanged info, Vance used a teleport crystal and headed off to what Ragna assumed was a waypoint on Floor Three. The Reaper was about to follow in suit, but then put the crystal away and gave a smirk behind him. "Now you choose to show up."

Forming behind Ragna was a giant golden serpent with twin heads that closest resembled that of the _King Cobra_. The massive creature stood towering over the _Reaper_ as it hissed with its forked tongues. Cracking his knuckles to ready himself for the fight, Ragna nonchalantly walked towards the massive boss as two sets of deathly venomous fangs lunged towards him.

...Their fight would not last long.

 _ **Author's Note: NOTES FOR THE FUTURE HERE.**_

 _ **Part Two! Coming at you hot!**_

 _ **So I got a ton of reviews on the last chapter which is always good because I was trying to make it one of those big 'payoff' chapters (basically a chapter which has been set up for using the other chapters). Anyways, I'd have to say it went well even with controversy of announcing Kazuto's death. I understand that a few people might be skeptical about this, but my main point was to add depth to Leafa's storyline and add another layer to her character, not that I totally despise Kirito like a few people thought I did.**_

 _ **Enough on him now, more to Ragna. Now the other big issue that I've been asked is will every floor take nearly as long as floor one. And to answer that, let's take a look at the floor timeline for the anime (which I'm basing this story loosely off of instead of the still in process**_ _ **PROGRESSIVE**_ _**manga).**_

 _ **In Episode 2**_ _ **Beater**_ _**(want to come up with a better term than that) we see that Floor One was cleared on December 3rd, 2022 (the anime gives us the meeting date of December 2nd, but the raid took place the following day). In Episode 3**_ _ **Red Nosed Reindeer**_ _**(put me down for an 'eh?' on that title) we see that five months later on May 9th, 2023 that SAO's 28th floor has just been cleared by a raid report. Doing the math, that's a little under six floors cleared per month; over one floor cleared every week (when the first floor took almost a MONTH to do?).**_

 _ **As such, that means that I can't have people spending weeks upon weeks on each floor (even though they should because Level and Monster Drop grinding is a big part of RPGs, especially MMOs). Even if I'm changing most of the floors that weren't directly seen in the anime, that still leaves me with a bit of a time crunch on floor progress if I want to stay close to it.**_

 _ **The big thing that the anime is oft to ignore (though is hilariously noted in**_ _ **Something Witty Entertainment's**_ _**Abridged series) is the MMO function of SAO, meaning there are plenty of other capable players out clearing the game with their own stories to follow if we chose. This means that Ragna won't always won't be the one to clear a Floor, but I do hope to have him spend a little time on every floor. Meaning there could still be over a hundred chapters… As long as I don't do a Floor 75 cop out (...Honest question, who here thinks THAT'S the route I'm going?).**_

 _ **As a side note I can hypothesis that maybe a CERTAIN player could have known where all of the bosses were and spent time clearing the game, but if that was the case the players would have found him out much sooner**_

 _ **Anyways enough stalling, let's get your mountain of actual reviews addressed.**_

 _ZilverX The Writer Triplet_ : Thanks, just had to hammer out a few details for part 2.

 _Ragriz:_ Fitting is a good word for it, I like to try to involve some last minute character development.

 _Zaralann_ : Thank you!

 _Xcell_ : That's the main reason did it like this; to give Leafa more weight than just… brother complex (Queenpin of Steel)

 _Hellifrit_ : Indifferent eh? I can work with that.

 _Armedlord 2.0_ : It wasn't necessarily the same Nerve Gear, but it was the same game copy at the very least.

 _JOK3R Of Monday:_ Thanks, all of which I was trying to go for.

Wlyman2009: Here's the first chapter of part two for your viewing pleasure.

 _BlitzNuteral69:_ We'll get to all of that down the line when we get to it.

 _The Unplanner_ : Thanks for the lengthy review, always a pleasure to hear from you.

 _EpicLinkSam_ : Afraid that's a general consensus.

 _ARSLOTHES:_ Wait no longer, it's here.

 _VGBlackwing_ : An off screen and explainable death is the closest I'll likely get for writing the guy.

 _Infinite Omega_ : Once again, here we go.

 _Touhoufanatic:_ I'm just in sort of an experimental phase when it comes to this story. Part two will be MUCH longer than part one. Thanks for sticking with me thus far though.

 _PersonaQeminod1_ : More or less how I planned to write this chapter.

 _Lightkirinhuyuname:_ Jeeze, I hope this gets you your fix for a while.

 _Medblare_ : Ugh, rage quitters… I'm just happy I haven't met any in _Cross Tag Battle._

 _The Emerald Mage_ : Another lengthy review, excellent!

Guest (1): A lot of people want me to add in the _Black Cats_ a bit more, but I haven't come to any obvious conclusions there.

 _Travis Moon_ : I'm assuming you're talking about Leafa. She wasn't in this chapter, but I've got plans for her for down the road.

 _VirusChris_ : A THIRD long review? Jeeze, I must be doing something right then.

 _Zeferoz_ : Thanks, I try.

Guest (2): Again, I try.

 _Solrac XD_ : It seems I've got someone happy for the substitution.

 _Necrois_ : There's a lot of changes coming to Part Two of the reboot. Stay tuned.

 _LL:_ Even if Kayaba did the reveal, there's still plenty of gear that could change your outward appearance. Just take Liz and her clip for example.

 _MIDNIGHT The Fallen One:_ Another long review… I'm happy to have people like you who go so in depth into my stories.

 _Flo463_ : We've talked via PM and though you've made it very clear that you'd prefer if I had kept Kirito in this fic, I hope that you understand that this is not the path that I'm choosing to take and respond accordingly whether that be to decide to stop reading or continue to with the knowledge that Kirito isn't in this particular _SAO_ story.

 _Fun Lover_ : Exactly what I was going for, thanks for understanding.

 _Kayen1024_ : Thanks for your input.

 _ **That… was a lot of reviews… Hope everyone enjoys this return to the story as we go to Part Two. Ciao!**_


	2. Friends

_**Sword VIII: Friends**_

"Thanks, be sure you come back if you ever need another upgrade," Liz said with a pleasant smile as her latest customer headed off, carry a two handed spear with a jagged point over her shoulder. It was one of her riskier upgrades to complete; she had only a 15% chance to succeed and if she failed, any materials used in the attempt would be lost. Lucky for her, she had add a few bonus material to increase her chances slightly and that seemed to do the trick perfectly, turning into a high stat boost return along with amazing experience for her smithing skill. The customer had seemed plenty happy as well and that could mean she'd get a few recommendations from her previous work.

Liz had moved her small smithing shop up to the Third Floor of _Sword Art Online_ and had positioned her store into the central town of that Floor. Because of its location this made for a lot of potential customers, but also quite a few competitors for the trade. Already many of the other and much larger player owned smith shops had made their way up to this floor and had claimed an early establishments to properly sell their wares while she was left setting a corner shop out on her tarp like she usually did. She tried not to let the idea bother her, but if she didn't get something to cover her shop soon she'd lose out on a lot of business any days there were rain.

"So how's business?" That questioned asked by a rather familiar voice made Liz smile as she turned to see her guild leader standing behind her with his arms crossed and a familiar nonchalant look on his face.

"Same old, same old, I'm still working out in the elements but at least people are sure to notice me out here," Liz told him before point to her shop sign. "I updated this though."

 _The_ _Final Rebellion Smith Shop_ read the sign which had the guild's seal drawn next to it. No one save for him knew this, but the sigil that Ragna had chosen for his guild to be represented by was his own personal Armagus sigil, colored red with a black outline of varying thickness.

"What, no more _Lisbeth's Streetside Smith Shop?_ You seemed awfully proud of that name back when I was visiting you on floor one." Ragna noted.

"Well, that's before I decided to go and join a guild so I gotta let everyone know it's a team effort," she told him with a smile before looking over her shop. "It's getting close to lunch, so you mind doing me a favor and watching the shop while I go grab us something to eat?"

"Us? As in plural? As in _you're_ treating _me_ to lunch?" Ragna asked while Liz gave him as bright a smile as she could manage. Her expression turned to be contagious as even Ragna had to give off a well meaning smirk. "Heh heh, I must be dreaming."

"Yeah, well let anyone lay a finger on my stuff and I'll make this into a nightmare," she promised as she ran off leaving Ragna to watch over her shop.

"I come here for an upgrade and she leaves me with house sitting? What's up with that?" the Grim Reaper thought to himself with a smirk as he crossed his arms to wait for the _Blacksmith_ to return, only to notice a girl heading towards him. She had long orange hair, fair skin, and golden eyes He knew he hadn't seen her before, but something about her outfit made him think he should know her from somewhere… right before he noticed his guild symbol right beside her name. "Asuna?"

"Ragna?" she asked in turn as she took a look at her guild leader with a sense of surprise. "I… wasn't expecting to see you here."

"Yeah, that tone of yours told me as much," he muttered. "So… that's what you look like under that hood of yours." He chuckled. "I was starting to think I'd have a second Argo in my guild."

"It… it's not like that… I've just decided to stop wearing it recently," she tried to tell him while all he did was give a small shrug. "So where's Liz then?"

"She was here a moment ago, but she left me to watch her shop while she grabbed us both lunch," Ragna informed before smirking. "You eat yet?"

"I haven't yet…" she told him, leaving Ragna to type out a message to his blacksmith. "You don't have to make her treat…"

"With all of the times everyone's made me treat for them at once? This is letting her off easy," Ragna informed before sending off the message. "So what have you been up to since I last saw you?"

"I've been traveling around the second and third floors in a group unlike someone I know," she told Ragna who merely shrugged. "In fact until just a bit ago I was working to clear one of the dungeons on this floor with Yuuki and Leafa. We managed to make it to the end, but there wasn't any boss there for us to fight. Must have already been beaten today."

"I've hit the same problem a few times myself," the Grim Reaper informed her thinking back to yesterday. "So… has Leafa been doing okay?"

"She has, in fact she's seemed much more optimistic ever since we managed to clear Floor One… I honestly think she's trying to come up with an idea to make it up to you."

"She doesn't need to do that, but it's still nice to hear that she's doing well," Ragna said, a small smile forming on his lips. "You're here for an upgrade too then?"

"Yep, just did some material farming while I was out to get everything I need to upgrade my rapier," Asuna told him. "Argo was even kind enough to send information my way for a few other dungeons that she saw on this floor."

"Kind enough… meaning you didn't have to bribe it out of her with food?" Ragna asked, earning only a confused look from Asuna. "Guess that makes me special then, _yare yare daze…_ "

"Does everyone keep demanding food from you then?" Asuna had to ask as she thought to their current situation. "But I thought that you just said that Liz was heading out to grab lunch for both of you."

"This is a RARE occasion, like… I half expected to wake up from a dream rare." Asuna didn't get the current situation, but the more she thought back to it the more she remembered Ragna complaining about the cost of food back on Floor One. "This game isn't the first place that I've been treated like a meal ticket either, far from it in fact…"

"Must have cost you a fair amount of Yen," Asuna said, the currency reminding Ragna that this was still a different world and he'd have to watch what he'd say if he didn't want to expose himself.

"Yen and more," he told her with a sigh, remembering the dine-and-dash he'd had to participate in courtesy of Tao and his high bounty.

"I'm back with the food and then some!" came Liz's voice as she returned to her shop with a three leather sacks in her hands, two of which she handed to Ragna and Asuna.

"That was quick," her guild leader noted as he opened the sack revealing a small pot giving off steam along with a German-style beer stein with a metal lid to keep its contents from spilling. "What did you get anyways?"

"For food I got three order of bell peppers and beef which had been ordered by a group that left early and for drinks I got us all beer to try."

"B-Beer!?" Asuna noted with concern. "I-I mean with all of the wheat fields on this floor it makes sense… B-But we're under the drinking age! Sure Ragna's probably fine, but the two of us-"

"It's fine, this is a game and I doubt we'd get drunk on this digital stuff no matter how hard we tried!" Liz told them all with a smile at the excitement of trying a new drink… Ragna decided to ignore said comment on his age.

' _Since I'm actually here I guess that means I might be able to get drunk if it wasn't for..._ ' Ragna thought as he looked at his arm and thought of the rapid healing it gave him that would prevent intoxication, not that he could really complain. Opening the small meal pot, he looked inside at the contents and grabbed his chopsticks to begin eating before pausing. "...Uh, listen Liz."

"What is it?" his blacksmith asked, stopping her from taking a long first sip from her stein.

"You said Bell Peppers and Beef," Ragna said to her as he stared down at the dish with disappointment in his eyes. "There's no Beef in here…"

"There's not?" Liz asked as opened her own dish and looked inside to find a similar meal. "Oh… You're right, there isn't."

"So you wouldn't really call this Bell Peppers and Beef now would you?" Ragna muttered, though he did use his chopsticks and get a few slices of peppers in his mouth, which weren't that bad he had to admit.

"Maybe they screwed up and order the vegetarian option and left so they wouldn't be stuck with the bill?" Liz suggested. "Well at least we have the beer to try right?" Neither Ragna nor Asuna said anything as Liz began to take a long swig of her drink, right before her eyes grew comically big and she began coughing on it.

"Not what you were expecting, was it?" her guild leader said with a sigh as he looked at his own beer stein.

"S-sooo b-bitter," Liz burst out, attracting a lot of attention for passers-by and causing Asuna to cringe at the display. "And my throat is burning! Why do people drink stuff like this!?"

"'Cause it gets addictive the more you try it," Ragna told her before sending the item to his inventory to save for Klein if the samurai wanted it.

"Ugh… You know what? Forget beer! Get me some Mikkusuore to drink any day!" the blacksmith declared leaving her guild leader to chuckle. "What's so funny!?"

"You'd really drink Mikkusuore with all of that cream and sugar? What are you, six?" he teased with a wolfish smirk.

"Oh yeah? And what would you drink?" she demanded with a scowl.

"Water mostly, whatever keeps me hydrated… Maybe some Oolong tea if I'm in a good enough mood." This earned him a rather powerful eye roll from Lizbeth. "Oh yeah? What's your problem?"

"All you want to drink is water and Oolong tea? What are you, fourty?" she asked in turn as a snarky come back to Ragna's earlier teasing. The Reaper only shakes his head before continuing to eat his beefless bell peppers special.

"You two are really good friends, aren't you?" Asuna asks the two of them, leaving Ragna to tilt his head to the side in a bit of surprise. "I mean… despite your bickering you both seem to get along pretty well… and Liz did say that you saved her shop."

"...Guess we are," the Grim Reaper admitted, just a touch hesitantly.

"Careful there Ragna; if you keep acting that friendly to me people are going to get the wrong idea about us," Liz told him sarcastically as she took another clump of peppers to her mouth.

"Wrong idea?" their rapier user asked before coming to the obvious conclusion and stuttering. "Y-You mean-?" Ragna could have just sighed at the annoyance and left it there… but then what fun would that be?

"...Well maybe if I didn't have to keep buying you food, no one would think I'm your damn _boyfriend_."

Liz nearly choked on her food at the sudden usage of the word _boyfriend_. She was fine after a moment of painfully coughing (which felt even worse now after it had mixed with the beer), but Ragna knew the red on her face afterwards wasn't all for a lack of air. Asuna herself had already gotten a touch of pink on her face at Lisbeth's comments, but her surprise that Ragna had brought the idea up even as a joke turned it a shade or two deeper.

"...You jerk," Liz told the Reaper with an absolutely scathing glare. Ragna laughs as he decides to enjoy the moment, even whilst knowing he's going to have hell to pay later. Asuna wisely stays quiet here while making a mental note that maybe Ragna doesn't have to pay for _every_ meal.

 _ **Author's Note**_

 _ **NEW DEAL: THE MORE REVIEWS I GET, THE SOONER I PUT OUT CHAPTERS!**_

 _ **Hey guys! So… much shorter chapter this week, but there's a good reason for that. If you pay attention to my most viewed (and most requested) story**_ _ **A Reaper's Awakening**_ _ **, you'll know that I've got a surge of updates for that fic planned starting on June 29th. I'm doing… okay, but I've got some stuff to finish off if I'm going to make it. If that wasn't reason enough for a short chapter I've had a crazy week with another (short) something I put out on Fanfiction for Cross Tag Battle and because of a birth in my family. Yeah, I've got a new baby cousin. Boy number 6 of my generation in fact... with no girls… Interesting turn of events.**_

 _ **Anyways, let's take care of the Review responses and post this thing.**_

 _ **ENDDRAGON369**_ **:** Possibly, I guess that's true.

 _ **lightkurinhuruname:**_ Your name takes me so long to spell out correctly… well enjoy your fix I guess.

 _ **Wlyman2009:**_ Yay, new really short chapter.

 _ **JOK3R Of Monday:**_ Well here's some new character interaction for you.

 _ **Mad King Ben:**_ Part 2 has had a slower start than part one thus far, but there's a bit more to plan out than a single floor.

 _ **ZilverX The Writer Triplet:**_ Brilliant, eh?

 _ **Hellifrit:**_ ...I shall neither confirm nor deny.

 _ **Medblare:**_ Well compared to some 'heroes' from his world like Jin and Rachel, he's a damn Saint.

 _ **Touhoufanatic:**_ It's mostly up to me, my crazy mind, and what looks good at the time of writing… that's my process in a nutshell.

 **Guest:** I'll plan on involving Shino/Sinon, but I'm just looking for a good place to introduce new characters. Might've included her here if the chapter wasn't so short.

 _ **TheEmeraldMage**_ **:** Thanks for the lengthy review. I'll be working around with Yui, but at the same time I'm going to have her inclusion play a major role in the story while trying to close as many plot holes as I can.

 _ **PersonaQeminod1**_ **:** Not sure if this qualifies as fluff… but I hope that you enjoy nonetheless.

 _ **TheUnplanner**_ **:** Am I detecting someone that is completely _over_ the whole 'innocent and clueless protagonist' trope? ...This is why I write for Ragna and not Kirito.

 _ **Zaralann**_ **:** We've already talked via PM, but you're entitled to your opinion on the matter.

 **Guest (2):** It's already differed quite a bit already, even classic scenes like the showdown with _Ilfang_ had some major changes to it.

 _ **Sonicdude8**_ **:** Thanks for the info that I need to consider. While I do think that getting used to that game MAY have speeded up the whole learning process, my concerns mainly lie with A) they now have less players and B) there should be a decent difficulty curve in the game to keep the players invested. Just a thought I had, but that info on quests giving boss details as a reward is something I'll have to keep in mind. Again, thanks.

 _ **Till next time! Ciao!**_


	3. Downpour

_**Sword IX: Downpour**_

"Looks like the gang's all here," Klein said as looked around the large Inn room where everyone was situated in. "All right, as _Second-In-Command_ I hereby bring the very first meeting of the _Final Rebellion_ guild to order! Guild Leader Ragna, you now have the floor."

"Klein, we're just meeting up to talk about floor three," Ragna reminded his over eager friend with a sigh as he crossed his arms and sat moodily in his chair, his favored sword _BloodScythe_ leaning against the wall behind him. "Argo, what've you got for us?"

"I managed to find a few leads… but most of it's jus' rumors," the group info gatherer explained as she adjusted her hood leaned against the back wall. "So from what I've been hearin', this floor is one where you gotta complete a set of quests in order to proceed and find the floor boss… the only problem is there are a lot of quests and no one's really sure which ones are part of the set… or if they've already done it."

"You mean that they don't know if what they were told can actually help them to find the floor boss?" Silica asked as Pina rested on her shoulder.

"That's certainly possible, but what I've been hearing is that you'll receive better rewards occasionally when you complete a job than what you'd originally get another time," Asuna informed, having done a little research into the game herself. "Several teams have worked together in order to figure out what's causing the change… but they haven't found anything solid."

"So as far as we can tell it's RNG based…" Liz sighed. "Great…" The _Blacksmith_ hadn't been planning on attending today's meeting, but when it had started raining she realized that she didn't have much choice besides closing her shop and helping the others out for today.

"RNG? What's that?" Ragna asked.

"It stands for _Random Number Generator_ ; it's basically a part of the game where you need to hope to get lucky," Yuuki explained.

"Shit," the Reaper crudely swore, knowing how bad _Lady Luck_ seemed to have it out for him. "Nothing for it then, so what are we going to do?"

"Fer now I saw we split up into teams and take care of as many quests as we can," Argo explained. "It ain't the best plan… but what else are we going to have to work with?"

"I guess we don't have much of a choice…" Ragna muttered as he got up, getting a few cricks out of his neck as after he'd risen. Grabbing _Bloodscythe_ from the wall, he placed the chipped and scratched blade back on his weapon's belt. "I was hitting the west side of the floor all day yesterday so I know that part well enough; I'll hit any quests I can and message you guys back if I find anything."

"Hey, you mind if I go with you then?" Leafa asked him as she too got to her feet. "There was something that I wanted to ask you about and there's a small town on the west side that's perfect for it."

"Can't you just tell us about it right now, whole guild's already here already here in fact," Ragna told her as he glanced around at everyone.

"I know, but I kind of want your opinion with fresh eyes," Leafa told him, before looking up at Ragna with large pleading eyes. "Come on, please?"

' _There go any chances I had of going all out today…'_ Ragna thought to himself with disappointment. "Fine, fine, just remember what we're trying to do, alright? This isn't some field trip."

"Please, says the guy that only goes out, clears dungeons like a mad man, and doesn't know the meaning of rest," Leafa reminds him teasingly as the two exit the meeting room, leaving the rest of the _Final Rebellion_ guild to coordinate their own efforts towards finding quests and clearing the third floor for good.

 _Later -Floor Three: West Side-_

"There's the town up ahead. I gotta say, these new travelling cloaks Liz made for us was a welcome surprise."

"Well she thought you'd need something to keep dry in the rain… though she did say something about you deserving to get soaked," Leafa told Ragna.

"Is this about that _boyfriend_ comment from yesterday?" No response was given, yet a confused blush appeared on the blond swordwoman's face. "It's nothing… I… Look, just don't read too much into it…"

"I-If you say so," Leafa told him, though her blush remained.

"Tch… grow up…" he muttered, earning a small but deserved scowl.

Since it wasn't that far away and the Reaper knew the area well enough, the two of them had elected to walk to the town and save the cost of a teleportation crystal. The rain wouldn't have been too large of a headache, but Liz's traveling cloaks would keep their heads dry and as a bonus it hit Ragna's ideal style nicely. The design was plain and what you'd imagine for a cloak; it covered his front and his back, went down almost to his ankles, and wrapped nicely around his head for needed rain protection. While Leafa's shorter poncho was light green, Ragna's much larger cloak was midnight black making the already enigmatic Reaper seem all the more mysterious while he wore it. The only strange part of his cloak's design was _Bloodscythe_ , which remained visible in its usual holding place while its belt part remained inside the fabric.

Walking into the town, the two saw that despite the weather there were plenty of people walking the streets and talking with NPC's asking for quests. The Reaper saw an unoccupied quest giver and was about to go for a job, but that's when Leafa grabbed his clock to stop him as she gestured for him to follow her to the small inn. Grunting in annoyance, he followed her and hoped that this would be dealt with quickly. The inn was on the larger side and from a quick glance it looked packed with people eating their meals, making agreements, or just hosting a short meeting between friends.

"Table for two?" the NPC waitress asked them with a smile as Leafa unequipped her poncho and sent it to her storage.

"Dunno," Ragna muttered from beneath the folds of his own dark cloak. "Depends on what the lady wants I gue-"

"THE HELL DID YOU SAY TO ME!?" came a sudden shout from the center of the restaurant… sadly it was a voice both of them recognized.

"Don't tell me…" Ragna began before looking and confirming his dread. "...Dammit… Just… God dammit…"

The owner of the voice was none of than Kibaou, the _Beta_ hater from floor one. His armor looked like it had gone through a couple of upgrades as it seemed have a bit more of a shine to it along with a few metal plates that covered his legs. He'd also swapped out his single-handed sword in exchange for a much larger two-handed blade. At the moment he was surrounded by three guys and two girls, all of which looked like flunkies with their own pissed expressions.

' _Idiots flock together then, no surprise…_ ' Ragna thought as the sounds of Inn ceased while everyone in the establishment watched the scene play out. ' _But with my luck…'_ "Hey, that girl they're threatening…"

"Yeah, she's who I wanted you to meet," Leafa told him with something of a guilty smile. The sound of Ragna's hand making contact with his own face was probably loud enough to be heard throughout the entire town. "Will it help if I buy you lunch?"

"Ask me after the meal..." he muttered, knowing no quality of food was worth this.

"Don't just ignore me, you bitch! What the hell did you say to me!" Kibaou shouted again at the woman seated before him since she hadn't responded to the first round of shouting Ragna had heard.

"I wasn't insulting you; I'm just saying that I don't want to work with you any longer," the woman said in response, her tone passive and unprovoked.

The young lady's most immediate feature confirmed something about _Sword Art Online_ that Ragna hadn't exactly been questioning up to that point; it was possible to wear glasses in the game. She had short dark hair that was braided at the front to keep it out of her dark eyes. A spear rested next to the table within arms reach and it's unique and slim design told Ragna that she was an agil type of fighter. Her armor appeared to be a black sleeveless turtleneck sweater that wouldn't provide much protection, but looks were deceiving and the heavier chainmail woven between the fabric had been often proven to be light, durable, and effective. Of course she also appeared to be around the age as the girls in _Final Rebellion_ , making Ragna wonder what was bringing all of these young ladies his way in the first place.

"Don't give me that crap!" Kibaou shouted as he continued to rant at the woman. "And don't for a damn second think that you're better than us! Half the time we were out there you didn't do a damn thing but freeze up! And now you're saying that we're not what you're looking for!? You got some damn nerve!"

' _I could stay out of this… but his voice is torture on my ears,_ ' Ragna thought reluctantly to himself as he walked forward, quickly getting attention from Kibaou's new group.

"Huh? And just who's this douchebag!?" one of the girls asked as Ragna approached. He didn't offer a response.

"Get outta here you goth, you're not scaring anyone," Kibaou said to the hooded figure as he glared at the folds around his head. "Tch, are you deaf or are you trying to start shit? You want to go with me!?"

"Like he could last ten seconds with a sword in that condition!" another of the women mocked. "With all of the scratches on it I doubt it could cut through a loaf of bread!"

"Scratch-" Whatever Kibaou had been about to say died in his mouth as he finally looked at the oversized blade the enigma was carrying, his eyes going wide as he immediately recognized the weapon. Looking back at the folds, he prayed to high god that he was wrong.

"Get lost."

There wasn't any mistaking _that_ voice. Trying to keep himself composed, Kibaou took a deep breath. "She's not worth it."

"But Kibaou-" one of the men in his team protested.

"I said let's go, dammit!" Kibaou shouted as he started walking off.

"...Guess she is a lost cause," another of the men said as a final insult before following their apparent leader with the rest of his team. With the scene having ended, the rest of the restaurant patrons went back to their business, the sounds of chatter and business echoing throughout the Inn.

"Thanks for stepping in I guess, but do I know you?" the seated girl asked the Reaper.

"Well I assume you know Leafa, otherwise this meeting's gonna get even more awkward," he answered from beneath the folds.

"Leafa?" she repeated, before noticing Leafa approaching with a bit of a cheerier smile than Ragna was used to. He didn't have any idea what was going on, but he figured he may as well go along with it after coming this far. Not long later the three of them were seated at the table with their lunch orders placed.

"So… how did you know I was here?" the new girl asked Leafa, getting right to the point which was something Ragna could appreciate.

"Simple, just checked my friend's list and saw that you were in the area," Leafa told her. "You said you wanted to keep in touch, didn't you?"

"That was you who insisted on that," the spear user reminded, a claim that wasn't at all a surprise to the Reaper. "In fact you didn't give me any choice about it."

"Considering who you were working with, I think I might've been right to worry," Leafa muttered, thinking to Kibaou's presence. "But anyways, my real reason for coming here was to introduce you to this guy! I think he might be just what you're looking for, Sinon!"

"This… guy?" the girl now known as Sinon asked as she got an eyeful of Ragna, well as much as she could considering…

"Hey, why are you still wearing that cloak indoors? Isn't it rude?" Leafa scolded her guild leader.

"What can I say? Liz makes comfortable cloaks," Ragna shrugged off nonchalantly.

"You chose a heck of a time to start being shy," the blonde head told Ragna with a sigh. "He's a little on the weird side and doesn't like to mince words, but trust me when I say he's the absolute best this game has to offer in combat."

"Is that so?" Sinon questioned, apparently not believing the Leafa

"Maybe it would help if you explained what the hell you're looking for?" Ragna suggested crassly from beneath the folds, earning a solid kick in his shin from Leafa while Sinon thought it over.

"It's hard to put to words, but… I'm looking for someone that can throw themselves into battle without a care in the world; someone that isn't afraid to die, but they don't have any plans to do so… someone that can look death in the eye and won't flinch for a second."

"...Okay, granted that _sounds_ a hell of a lot like me," Ragna admitted, trying not sound too arrogant at the claim. "So… you're just looking for a tough partner then? Is that it?"

"Maybe, but I'm only looking for a temporary partnership; maybe a week at most," Sinon told him. "You can take all of the rewards we obtain; I'll only ask for any spears you don't have an immediate use for."

"...One hell of a deal…" Ragna observed with heavy skepticism. "What's your real game here? Do you need levels that bad, or…?" Sinon didn't say anything, avoid contact with him and keep her gaze focused at the table. "...You're asking because of the _flinching_ part, aren't you?"

"Hey! Don't be rude! She's offering us a good deal here!" Leafa scolded before turning apologetically back to Sinon. "M-Maybe if we all go out and clear a quest today, we can see if you two are a good fit with each other? Will that work?"

"I guess I don't have any objections," the spear user admitted as she tried to look at the mysterious stranger before her. "But… I don't even know your name."

"You can call me Ragna ... _Ragna the Bloodedge._ " The Grim Reaper had been about to leave it at his standard name, but decided it was time he started using his proper title. Maybe this was a new life, but that didn't mean he wanted to forget about the old one, no matter how much hell it had been filled with.

"Bloodedge?" Sinon repeated with surprise at the intensity and seriousness that the name had been delivered.

"B-Bloodedge? Where the heck did that name come from?" Leafa demanded, equally as shocked by the developments of an added title.

"Just something I used to go by back home… after a while in here, it just felt right to start using it again," the Grim Reaper admitted hoping that they would drop the issue there. It looked like both girls wanted to question him further on the name (Leafa quite a bit more than Sinon) but luck appeared to be on Ragna's side for once in a long while as it appeared that their ordered food had finally arrived.

"Sorry for the wait everyone, I've brought your meals here for you," the NPC waitress said to the group.

"Great, I'm starved," the Grim Reaper said, eager for a change in topic and almost as eager to enjoy a nice lunch...only to be silent for a long moment as he stared at what he'd been given. "I think you got my order wrong…"

"I hope you enjoy your food!" the waitress said before hurrying off.

"Hey! Don't just ignore me! I asked for the special!" Ragna shouted, but to no avail. "God dammit…" He looked at the single loaf of modest bread and the goblet of cheap wine in front of him before comparing it to the meat pie Leafa had ordered. "...Mind giving me half of that? You can take my wine in exchange."

"I'm under the drinking age…" Leafa tried to tell him.

"Yeah, so is Liz and she tried to drink yesterday," Ragna told her, admittedly a little curious to see how the blonde would handle the drink. "No pressure either way…" Leafa didn't say anything in response, but she cut a good slice of her pie and gave it to Ragna and put it on his plate while he gave her his wine and half of his bread.

"Might as well," she said before taking a quick sip from the goblet. Since this wine likely wasn't nearly as strong as the _grain beer_ Liz had tried the day prior, Ragna wasn't expecting Leafa to gag on it but was surprised when all Leafa gave was a small cough. "That's… stronger than I was expecting."

"Huh," he muttered in kind before cutting himself a slice of his pie and eating it through the cover of his cowl. It wasn't a bad taste… but the Reaper had yet to find any food in this game that he considered comparable to his own cooking.

The meal didn't last all that long and despite Leafa's best effort to get a conversation started, Sinon's passive nature along with Ragna's standoffish appearance made for a quiet dining experience. Nothing of substance happened, until the three were set to leave the restaurant.

"All right, let's see if we can't track down someone to get a quest from," Leafa said as she went into her menu.

"Finding a quest giver is the easy part," Sinon reminded. "The real problem is finding a quest that doesn't already have a dozen players after it."

"Right, this floor is already starting to get crowded, isn't it?" Leafa asked as she finished going through her menu and equipped her green poncho. She opened the door to head out, but then turned to Sinon. "...Aren't you going to put something on?"

"I would if I had something, but at the moment none of the store I've gone to have had any cloaks for sale and I lost my old one on my way back into the city."

"Seriously, and on such a rainy floor like this?" Leafa sighed. "We could take turns wearing mine, maybe that would work until we find something to cover you?"

"But then that would leave you out in the storm," Sinon told her. "I don't think that-" Before she could protest any further, a large mass of black fabric was thrown directly into her face. As she struggled to get it off, she heard the door open in front of her.

"I want that back once we're done," Ragna muttered darkly as he started walking out into the rain. Now getting her first good look at the Reaper (though the rain was already starting to get his gravity defying hair to droop), Sinon stared for a long moment at the revealed enigma standing out in the rain. "...Hurry up will ya? I'm not getting any dryer out here."

"You didn't have to step outside…" Sinon sighed as she put his cloak on (thankfully equipment adjusts to its users size). "...Thanks though."

"Like I said, I want it back later," he muttered darkly as his hair was already falling further and further from the rain. "Come on, let's get going."

"Right…" Sinon said as the two started to follow. ' _Well… He certainly doesn't LOOK like your average player.'_

 _Later -Floor Three: Bandit's Outpost-_

"Hard to believe that we made it here without getting a single encounter," Leafa noted as the three stood at the front of the dungeon's entrance.

"Not really, with all of the players we saw on this floor it was clear that they were killing as many monsters as they could and fighting as fast as they can," Sinon said said from beneath the folds of Ragna's cloak. "Are we sure this is the place?"

"Yeah, headed this way yesterday so this should be the right place," Ragna told the two, a little miffed that they weren't heading inside yet since he was already drenched from head to toe.

The quest that the group had been given was your standard retrieval errand. The NPC's story had been that a group of Orcish bandits had invaded his home and had stolen his wife's wedding ring. He knew that one of the monsters would have the item on them, but warned that the Orcs had a powerful leader that should be avoided at all costs. Ragna himself hadn't actually delved inside this place the day prior; too many players were already here and he didn't want to feel crowded.

"I guess I should've asked earlier, but should we message Argo to see if she has the map data for this dungeon?" Leafa asked Ragna, who didn't say anything in response as he simply opened the large wooden door and proceeded into the outpost. "Okay then, guess I'll start mapping…"

' _Did he forget that I still have his cloak?_ ' Sinon thought as she looked at the piece of fabric before sighing and sending it to her inventory. ' _I'll give it back to him later, once we've finished our job._ '

This place had an impressive attention to detail with this dungeon and most of is was covered in dust or mud, there were cobwebs in the corners, and ale stains and broken beer barrels lie scattered around the place. From what Ragna could tell from his perception of the place, there shouldn't be any other players in the immediate area… the same couldn't be said for the monsters of this place.

"Looks like we've found our first target," Ragna noted as he took out _Bloodscythe_ , using both hands on the oversized sword. This caught Leafa attention, for as little time as they'd fought alongside each other she could recognize that Ragna was much more comfortable using the blade in a single arm backhanded style.

The target for Ragna's serious nature was a usual orc of fantasy design; a green skinned brute that stood taller than Ragna and had obnoxious muscles along its arms, legs, and biceps. Two long tusk-like teeth emerged from its lower jaw and its glowing red eyes had a sense of evil about them… not unlike Ragna's own red eye, the Reaper mused. This one was clad in plate armor that only covered parts of its body since its main focus was attacking with its falchion. While the weapon would normally take both of a regular player's hands to wield, the Orc would have no trouble using it in one and only used elected to do so for additional power.

"I'll knock it off balance, Sinon will follow up with her spear, and Leafa will finish the bastard off." Ragna's plan was a simple one, but as long as their attacks all made solid contact the monster would be felled without difficulty. Both girls seemed to understand to role and simply nodded. The three of them then charged forward, Ragna using his blade to strike not the monster, but instead its weapon and breaking its guard completely. "Now!"

As Sinon rushed past him, Ragna kept a careful eye on her so he could get an idea of what he was dealing with. He wasn't sure how much of what Kaibou had said was true (he knew not to take _those_ words at face value), so he decided it was time he'd get an assessment himself. While he saw he spear thrust towards her target, he saw that for a split second she had indeed frozen. It looked like it took some effort, but she managed to power through and strike the monster with her skill… effectively destroying it before Leafa even had a turn to act.

"Holy… that's some power," Leafa said in surprise as the team's result screens came up.

"I usually have to focus on finishing a fight quickly, so taking the first blow is important," Sinon explained. "Of course if it doesn't work… I might be in for a difficult fight."

' _Something about her expression_ … _Some sort of trauma maybe?_ ' Ragna guessed. ' _Guess I can't know for sure until I see more of her in action._ ' "We didn't the ring on this drop, so we're heading in further… keep your guard up."

"I understand, this isn't my first time exploring a dungeon," Sinon told him.

As Ragna would unfortunately discover, what Sinon had done in the first instance was a best case scenario. Occasionally, she would freeze completely or her nerves would send her attack off of its mark. Rescuing her normally wasn't too large of an issue, but it was starting to become something too frequent for Ragna's taste… one strange aspect of Sinon's curse was that when she was attacking a creature's back, she didn't seem to have any such issue.

' _Her output with that spear of hers is on a whole other level though,'_ the Grim Reaper thought to himself as he sat at one of the dusty tables. The three were currently in a safe zone and Sinon had asked if they could take a break so she could rearrange a few things as they continued to search for the ring. Ragna swore that he must've killed just about every Orc in this place, but the ring wasn't showing up anywhere.

"Hey, got a moment?" Leafa asked as she sat beside him. Ragna didn't even get a chance to answer as she sat in the chair beside. "So?" She was keeping her voice down, to the point where Sinon wouldn't be able to tell what they were saying.

"She's got power, but if she didn't have us to cover her whenever she freezes she'd have died twice over," he admitted. "Which is why I'm guessing you wanted me here, to keep an eye on her?"

"Something like that, but it might be easier to convince her to join us if you… _show off a little_?" Ragna wasn't sure what she was implying. "You've been using your sword in both hands when you could be using it in one, you've been relying on the two of us to help you fight, and you haven't used any of those special skills of yours…"

"Yeah, 'cause I still need to know what she can do," Ragna tried to argue, but Leafa wasn't buying it.

"Just go all out on our next monster, okay? Show her what you can really do." He didn't respond, but Leafa took that as a sign that he was reluctantly agreeing with her. Smiling and standing from her seat, she headed back over to talk to Sinon.

' _Go all out, eh?_ ' Ragna thought to himself as he brought up his right hand and looked at his _BlazBlue's_ palm. ' _Well if she's asking… then I guess I can do it this once._ '

Soon enough the three were walking down the dusty hallways once more with Ragna taking point at the front. The three were now descending down the stairs, heading into the deeper parts of the dungeon. Opening the door to a large open area, Sinon and Leafa were about to step forward, but Ragna arm shot out and stopped them. Walking from the far wall towards them was an Orc, much like the ones before only this one stood even taller and his armor was a more intimidating set of plate mail. He wielded a two-handed great axe which had a few human skulls wrapped around it as a threatening display.

"I guess that's the boss that we were supposed to avoid," Sinon whispered to keep the boss from noticing them.

"Yeah, it sure looks like a tough one," Leafa said, thinking about what she'd just asked Ragna to do. "Maybe we should look for a different monster to fight before we-"

She didn't have a chance to finish as Ragna rushed forward, running straight for the boss at amazing speeds. The boss seemed to realize that it was about to be attack and brought its axe back to charge a weapons skill, but it was far too slow as Ragna quickly closed the gap and didn't even bother to go for his own blade. Giving a violent roar, he brought his left arm back, caused black flames to be channeled into it, and smashed it into the boss's face. The Orc's face was violently torn from the single punch, much like Ilfang had been in his final moment, right before it followed in kind and exploded into light shards.

"O-O-One punch?" Leafa asked with shook, eyes wide with her surprise as Ragna went into his results screen.

"He… does he usually do that?" Sinon asked, she herself unable to keep from staring at Ragna closed his menu. She tried to find her voice to ask something else, but found that she couldn't speak. The only thing that broke her out of her daze was when Ragna flipped something towards her, leaving her to struggle to catch it after it hit her forehead. "Is this… the ring?"

"Yep, turns out it was the damn boss that had it," Ragna sighed as he crossed his arms. "I _thought_ the NPC said that it had been taken by one of the Orcs, not their damn leader…" ' _Then again with my luck should I really be this surprised?_ ' "Guess we're done here then. Ready to head back and..." The Reaper paused as an idea formed in his mind, something reminiscent of his time training with Jubei. "Actually, there's one last thing we need to do here."

"We've already checked the rest of the rooms and we've opened every chest that we've come across; what else could there possibly be to do?" Leafa asked, right as Ragna unslung his sword from his belt. She figured that there might be another monster nearby, but that was when she noticed the Ragna was holding his weapon in a single hand and pointing it directly at Sinon. "Wh-what on earth are you doing!?"

"Breaking whatever the hell's keeping her from going all out," he explained crudely as he kept his weapon pointed at the surprised spear user, his eyes narrowed in a challenging glare. "I might not have a damn clue what keeps freezing you, but I'm stopping whatever shit that is right here."

"By threatening to kill her!? Are you insane!?" Leafa demanded. Realizing he'd screwed up a bit but managing to stay composed, Ragna quickly went into his menu and issued a duel challenge to Sinon. "I… still…"

"You're not the one I'm going to be fighting Leaf; you told me yourself you didn't want to see anyone else die, so stay out of this," Ragna said in a low serious voice as he kept his blade up.

"...After what you just showed me, you really think I can stand up to you in a fight?" Sinon asked Ragna seriously, her eyes returned in an annoyed glare.

"I don't remember giving you a choice," the Reaper told her. "You think you can power through the rest of this game like you are now? Wake the hell up, your life's on the line." Sinon didn't say anything, only giving a reluctant sigh as she accepted the challenge and brought her spear out and stepped forward, a small barrier forming around them that would both serve as a boundary for the fight and effectively keep Leafa from interfering.

"I've already tried dueling before to try and cope with the game's combat and it didn't do anything," Sinon told him with her spear readied as the countdown lowered. "What makes you think this is going to be any different?"

"Easy, because I won't be giving you a damn chance to flinch," the Reaper told her as the countdown reached zero.

Sinon could barely react as Ragna barreled forward, much like he had when he'd destroyed the boss, reaching Sinon and slashing his blade at her before she could even begin a counter and forcing her to dive to the side in order to dodge the blade. Ragna hadn't given her a chance to recover and brought his sword down on her spear's guard, sending her skidding back from the force.

Sinon fought her hardest and actually managed to shakily recover from the force of the impact. Charging up her sword skill, she managed to begin to throw a counter strike against Ragna… only for her to freeze once more. It was only for a split second and she managed to power through, but that split second was all it took for Ragna to send her flying into the duel boundary with the blunt side of his own weapon.

"Sinon!" Leafa cried with worry as the spearwoman slowly made her way to her feet, feeling a completely winded from the impact of the move. Even though the match had ended in Ragna's favor, he was already issuing another challenge. "Stop this! You're going to kill her!"

"Not with the way I have the duel set," Ragna told her as Sinon accepted the challenge once more and readied herself. "Any damage I do in our duels is going to be healed afterward and her health won't go below ten percent… meaning we just have to do this until it sticks!"

This time Ragna didn't charge forward, this time letting Sinon take the initiative to close the distance between the two… that didn't mean he didn't use said time to switch _BloodScythe_ to its titular sickle form. With new menace and additional range, Ragna made a huge swipe to the spearwoman, who had to leap over the attack at the last second to dodge the move. Readying a lunging attack, she closed her eyes at the last moment for she wouldn't have to see the impact… only to receive a fist to her face as she was blasted out to the boundary.

"Closing your eyes to it ain't going to accomplish jack shit," Ragna muttered as he quickly went and reset the duel before he could even give Leafa a single chance to protest. This time Sinon was struggling to get to her feet, but trying her hardest to break through all the same. "You're stubborn at least, let's see how far that will get you."

Much the same as the first time, Ragna took off charging at Sinon with his sword, holding it back-handedly in his left hand. This time the spear user had managed to charge her skill up and thrust it forward to stop his attack… only to freeze as she looked at his face and her eyes grew wide at the memory of-

"SNAP OUT OF IT DAMMIT!" Ragna crassly told her as he knocked her spearpoint up and sent her off balance. Before she could react, Ragna threw out a roundhouse kick that caughter square in the gut and sent her stumbling back, this time still carrying enough health to keep her in the fight. Leaping high into the air, Ragna roared as he brought his sword down only a split second after Sinon had dodged to the side. Turning to face her, the two thrust their respective weapons at the same time… only for Ragna to be impaled by Sinon's longer reach.

"Ragna!" Leafa cried from the sidelines, seeing as the spear point poked out of Ragna's back. Even if this had been his intention, it still felt horrifying to look at.

' _I… I hit him…'_ Sinon thought horrified as she looked at her weapon piercing through through Ragna's chest. Even though it had hit him dead on, Ragna's health hadn't dropped to the red and was only slowly descending. Shakily bringing her gaze up, she forced herself to look at Ragna's face and imagined something horrifying from her past… only to see the _Reaper's_ smug grin.

"Sure as hell took you long enough," he told her cockily. It was an expression Sinon hadn't been expecting and only stared at him in awe… right before getting struck back into a boundary with another powerful punch from the Reaper. "Come on, we're not done here."

"Ragna… isn't that enough?" Leafa had to ask.

"No… I need to keep doing this…" Sinon responded as she got to her feet. "I… I think it's working… somehow… Please, keep going."

"Tch, if you want to go through hell that badly, I won't say no now," he promised as he rose his sword and the two charged each other once more.

Truthfully Ragna didn't hold that big of an advantage over the spear user in terms of levels and stats given she had an additional two weeks in the system compared to him, but Ragna's raw experience and history of fighting gods or god-like opponents was too much for her to handle and the rest of their fighting showed it. Sinon wasn't here to win though, she was here to give her all in curing whatever was holding her back. In the end the two of them ended up dueling in that room for close to half an hour, leaving Leafa to watch feeling helpless.

"...That'll do for now," Ragna muttered as he walked up to Sinon who had again been flung back into the barrier and was now having trouble getting up. "So… feeling any-?"

 _ **SHING!**_

In an instant, Sinon's spearpoint was right in front of his face. She hadn't hesitated for even a split second in her move and glared at Ragna with eyes of both annoyance and conviction, both her grip and her eyes holding steady.

"Glad that you're over it and all… but we're not in a duel so that could've killed me," Ragna said, sweat dropped slightly at the detail she'd overlooked.

"R-right…" Sinon shaikly responded as she cringed at her own overeagerness, only for it turn to a blush as Ragna ruffled her hair.

"Pretty badass of you all the same," he commended with a snarky grin. With that dealt with, he turned his attention back to Leafa whose scowl at him was intense. "What? You're the one that was worried about her whole freezing thing, I'd say I fixed it."

"By scaring me half to death!?" Leafa shouted at him angrily as she crossed her arms. "You're lucky you both managed to live through that!"

"We were in a duel…" Ragna weakly defended, but again the blonde swordswoman wasn't having any of it. "I'm sorry alright, it just felt like the right thing to do after what my… never mind."

"After your what?" Leafa demanded, knowing she was deserved answers after what she'd been put through.

"Well… let's just say what I did was child's play compared to what my teacher used to put me through," he admitted darkly, seeming to strike a chord with both of the young girls. "We ready to head back then?"

"More than ready," Leafa told him, still a little cross with Ragna's actions. Sinon herself seemed to be rather passive about the situation… but she still had to hand it to Ragna; he had helped her in the end.

 _Later -Floor Three: West Side-_

"You realize you could have taken you cloak back?" Sinon told him as the three walked through the harsh downpour, Ragna starting to grumble about the damn rain on the floor. "I already wore it on the way out…"

"I've already got Leafa pissed at me as it is, I don't need to make it worse by leaving you out in the rain," he told her, not earning a response from Leafa. "That aside, a little rain never hurt anyone."

"...It's still enough to get you annoyed," she noted casually.

"Eh, I'm usually pissed anyways. Not a big deal," Ragna told her as they made their way back into the town. "Come on, let's find that NPC and see if our reward tells us anything about the floor boss.

The NPC was exactly where they had left him, standing out in the rain next to one of the inns. Ragna had to give the game credit; the NPC looked so pathetic standing out there in the rain that it would be hard to turn down its begging… like sad, lost puppy almost. He kept such thoughts to himself, but they still persisted.

"Did you manage to find my wife's ring?" the NPC asked is it recognized that they had taken the quest.

"We do indeed," Sinon said seriously as she handed the NPC the ring that the farmer had requested that they return.

"That's the one… It's the last thing I have to remember her by after she passed away a few years ago," the quest giver sadly. Ragna figured that this was just rambling some already generated dialogue and that there'd be another team to take the exact same quest soon enough. "You've done me a great service, but I have little to give in return."

"That's okay, we were happy to help all the same," Leafa said as she gave the brightest smile she could manage in this gloomy weather (and with her ire towards Ragna). This shouldn't have affected the rewards they would receive, only something she thought she would do to appear present. A results screen appeared in front of Ragna to show their reward… negligible experience and a meager amount of Col along with-

"A loaf of bread?" Ragna asked as he looked at the item.

"I told you, I was afraid that I couldn't pay you much," the NPC told them before bowing. "Thank you so much for your support."

"Go figure," Ragna sighed. "Well whatever, I guess-" His eyes narrowed as he thought he saw a spark appear around the NPC's entire body.

"What is it?" Leafa asked, apparently unable to see what Ragna had.

"Actually, now that I think back on it I do have a something that you might be interested in," he promised before sending over a second item. Looking over the screen, Ragna saw that it read _Medallion of Lightning._ "It's an odd item that I found when I was checking my wife's grave earlier, but perhaps it could serve you well."

"...Who could say?" Ragna said passively as he closed the screen and started walking away. "Stay dry."

"What was the other reward?" Leafa asked as she followed, curious what they'd gotten.

"Couldn't tell ya… probably going to need Argo to look into it," he admitted with a sigh. "It's getting late though… should probably grab dinner and maybe turn in for the night. What about you, Sinon?"

"I… was hoping I could travel with you a while longer," Sinon asked. She didn't have a blush on her face, but she did seem to be showing a bit of her awkward side in asking the Reaper.

"Huh, so I guess this means that I qualify for what you were looking for?" he asked, his cocky smile returning in full.

"By the skin of your teeth," Sinon told him humorlessly, causing his smugness to disappear almost immediately.

"Try and be a nice guy," Ragna sighed as Leafa giggle at the comment. "Alright, I guess you can stick with me and my team. I hope you're ready to work your ass off on this floor though."

"I plan on doing so," Sinon told him as she held her hand out. "Thank you, Ragna the Bloodedge."

' _...Damn… don't think I'll ever get used to hearing THAT,'_ Ragna admitted as he shook the young maiden hand.

 _ **Author's Note**_

 _ **I LIVE!**_

 _ **...Seriously though, a few of my readers showed concern when I didn't post for over a month. I appreciate the concern guys, so thanks for making me feeling needed (even if it's just so that you can get your fanfiction fix).**_

 _ **Shorter chapter this time around, but I felt like I needed to start SOMEWHERE with my comeback. Don't expect and Awakening chapter anytime soon I'm afraid… some serious work's going to need to be done on that to appease that fanbase. Anyways, let's get the Reviews squared away.**_

 _Wlyman2009_ : You say right before I go silent for a month.

 _Armedlord 2.0_ : Shhh! Spoiler for those that didn't read that version!

 _PersonaQeminod1_ : I haven't, but then again I don't have a Switch either.

 _ENDDRAGON369_ : ...Masses have been a little… quiet.

 _Ryoken Uchiha_ : Yeah, there wasn't much of a 'story' point to that chapter, more of a fun happening between friends.

 _Touhoufanatic_ : I know how difficult it is to type on a phone all too well. You have some interesting ideas, all of which I'll consider.

 _A Special Kind Of Stupid_ : It's an experiment, just something I wanted to try out.

 _Doraemax_ : Eh, some floors had large buildings that were _meant_ for guild halls, but I guess not everyone has millions to spend on a venue.

 _Netto567_ : ...About that…

 _Lightkirinhuruname_ : Jeeze, with your addiction I can only guess how you've had to cope.

 _Reclusive Dork_ : Eh, I try it myself.

 _RedBurningDragon_ : Far from a perfect revenge though.

 _The Unplanner_ : Heh, he's not the worst of the 'generic Anime protagonists' though. There are far worse than him… Far, FAR worse.

Guest (1): This guy sees it.

 _ImmaNumber1_ : Not really… it's just an expression.

 _MIDNIGHT The Fallen One_ : Thanks for a lengthy review, as always.

 _Zaralann_ : Maybe… but his healing factor is pretty OP.

 _ **Until Next Time! CIAO!**_


	4. A Gathering Force

_**Sword X: A Gathering Force**_

"With how big this dungeon is I'm going to be angry if this isn't where the floor boss has been hiding all this time," a young female player with short blonde hair and fair skin told her companions. Even if her clothing with the occasional metal plate was considered some of the lightest armor in the game, she still couldn't help but give a tired sigh as she followed closely behind her teammates.

"You were the one that insisted that we bring you with us, Maval," a woman wearing glasses with deep green hair told her as she held her finger on the screen before her and continued to map out the dungeon. Her full-plated steel armor was much heavier and her defenses were only increased by the large shield on her wrist. "You're free to turn back if you're really feeling that tired."

"Whaaaat? But that would leave you guys out to dry!" she said with a pout as she crossed her arms, offended that the rest of her team would continue on without her.

"If it gets us some peace and quiet, it might be worth it," the spectacle wearer muttered with a sigh.

"Helena!" Maval yelled at the taller women while a third member of their team gave a short laugh at their conflict.

"Come on you two, let's play nice," the third said, trying hard not to laugh as she tried to keep her teammates from getting upset with each other. She wore heavy chainmail that was reinforced in key areas with thick leather padding and also had a kite shield on her arm. With her comely features and short brown hair, she'd caught the eyes of many a male players. "Besides, it doesn't really matter if anyone here has to leave; Sakura could probably take this dungeon all on her own."

"Maybe I could Lilly, maybe I could," the group's leader told her teammates with a short smirk. While her reddish-brown leather armor with a deep red cloak covering it were nothing too fancy; her hair and weapon of choice were the real eye catchers. Her hair was brilliant shade of violet, slightly spiking out in a few directions, but not covering any of her face. Her weapon was a Scythe with a long curved handle and wicked and jagged edge on the blade to add to its menace. "But even if I _can_ , that doesn't mean that I'd want to do _all_ of the work while everyone else gets to sit back. You all have your jobs to do here, so let's get to the end of this dungeon and hopefully we'll find some clue about clearing this floor."

"Leader," Helena, the mapper and heavy armor wielder said, gaining the group's attention. "I've finished mapping out the rest of this area. It looks like the end of the dungeon isn't far off, but we'll have to fight through a group of about seven monsters. They're likely Orcs and I wouldn't be surprised if there was a commander in the group."

"Neither would I… but that's what I have the three of you for," Sakura told the rest of her team as she unslung her scythe off of her back. "Let's make this quick everyone, we're in the home stretch after all."

The team's approach to fighting the Orcish hordes was standard for SAO. Sakura waited patiently at the team of wandering Orcs before seeing an opportunity as she saw one stumble far enough from the group to isolate it. Taking a throwing dart out of her pocket, Maval managed to nail the monster right in the back and gain its attention. Because the target was far enough from the others, the Orc didn't attract the attention of the other monsters. Giving a roar, it charged a skill into its falchion and rushed towards the girls. Helena and Lilly brought both of their shields up and easily took the blow.

"SWITCH!" both users called out as they leaped out of the way for the two behind them to take action. Maval's knife was the quicker weapon and as such it charged its skill the quickest, allowing its wielder to rush past the orc and make a deep gash on its waist. Sakura's skill took longer to charge since she was using a two-handed weapon, but seeing as her massive slash was enough to bring down the Orc's remaining HP it was well worth it.

Despite their best efforts, another two orcs detected the noise and rushed into the group. Dividing up into their regular teams the process repeated itself, only this time on with additional support. Helena defended Sakura and switched to let her leader swing her scythe across the Orc's flesh, but Sakura then quickly moved out of the way as Helena drove her knife forward and stuck the creature in the chest and downed it. Likewise with Maval and Lilly, after Maval again cut through an Orc with her knife rush Lilly followed it up with a mighty mace swing to the monster's face and defeated the creature with ease.

With the enemy's number reduced by almost half, the arty made their way forward at the remaining orcs. Positioning herself just right and charging her skill with expert timing, Sakura's powerful swing managed to strike three of the orcs in one swing and sent their HP dangerously. The rest of her team, well prepared with their leader's ideal combat strategy the rest of the girls unleash their own weapon skills on different targets and brought them down with ease. The final Orc (the commander of the group) went for Sakura, but her reflexes allowed her to recover and deflect the monster's falchion at the last instant. Swinging her scythe through the creature's neck, she scored a critical hit and downed the monster in that single blow.

"Finally! I was waiting for that level up!" Lilly exclaimed with a smile as the results screen came up, indicating that she had indeed become stronger. "How are you guys doing?"

"Fine on my end, another encounter like that should cause me to level up as well," Helena told her before looking to their leader. "The end of the dungeon is just up ahead."

"Right, let's wait to look over our winnings once we get back into town; I want to make sure this dungeon really does have the floor boss in it," Sakura instructed. The rest of her team gave a short nod as they all closed their screens. Walking further into the dungeon, they the end of a dungeon… and the floor boss door. This large door looked far different from the others, having the visage of an apocalyptic lightning storm with five wicked bolts of lightning tearing the ground asunder. Even still, this was clearly the boss door.

"Finally! Can't they have made these things any easier to find?" Maval complained before she looked to Helena. "You've got the teleport crystals, so let's get back home and let everyone know we found this thing."

"Not just yet, we still need to get a good look at whatever's on the other side of that door." Helena told them. "If we know what it looks like, it can make our preparations that much better."

"Don't worry Maval, just sit back and we'll check it out," Lilly promised. "We're just going in for a quick peek." The group moved forward and opened the great door… only to find them sealed shut. "Come on! You have us take this long finding you and now you won't even let us in!?"

"Another setback," Helena sighed as Maval actually seemed a little relieved (she of course tried not to show it). "Now… where are we supposed to go from here?"

"...Something seems off about this door," Sakura noted as she looked at the artwork upon the door.

Upon closer inspection, all five of the lightning bolts seemed to have a small circular indent where they made contact with the earth. The team leader stared at the design for a moment, before an idea formed in her head. Opening her menu and going into her inventory, she brought out a small medallion with a lightning bolt on it and stuck it into the hole. The fit was perfect and the entire bolt lit up a bright yellow as it glowed with energy. The door still didn't budge, but they had what they needed.

"I see… so that's how it is," Sakura said before turning to the rest of her team. "Let's head back in to town; our work's not nearly done yet."

 _The Next Day -South Side-_

Ragna gave a small wince as the puddle he so carelessly walked into proved to be a little deeper than he had thought. He felt the water leak through his shoes and make contact with his foot. This fact wouldn't have hurt his pride as much if this was the first time in almost a week that the rain had finally stopped, now only leaving the collection of rainwater across the dirt covered road. Giving a low grumble, he did his best to ignore it as he proceeded further to the small town up ahead.

The town itself wasn't too much to speak of, in fact it was largely ignored by most of the players. The most that this place offered was a small inn and a couple of quest giving NPC's on the streets. Ragna had heard from Liz that she'd tried to set up shop here, but the lack of players in the area mixed with the constant rains made her give up that idea quickly. She'd have to push her wares extra hard on the days where she could open up shop… and that meant making sure Ragna was _extra_ stocked on throwing knives. Lisbeth's woes aside, as the Reaper made his way to the entrance he caught sign of a familiar face.

"Ragna!" came the shout of Diabel, the leader of the floor one boss raid, as the blue haired player waved him over. Offering his hand to the Reaper, Ragna took it and the two shook.

"You seem to be doing well," he commented. Much like he'd already been doing, Diabel was equipped with a standard sword and shield mix only now he was wearing the _Coat of Midnight_ that Ragna had given him after he'd beaten the floor one boss. Even if he was used to wearing something heavier, the high defence it gave him was better than any other armor that could be found so far. "I was a little surprised when Argo told me that you wanted to meet."

"I still gotta thank you for setting me right back on Floor One," Diabel told him. "Also, you know… saving everyone's life."

"...No thanks necessary," Ragna said, trying to say what he thought a hero would. In truth he didn't _have_ to be thanked… but it didn't hurt. "So we found it?"

"I think so, but I can't say that I know much more than you do… only that these things are apparently the answer," Diabel said as he went into his inventory and brought out a small medallion with a lightning bolt on it. "You got one of these?"

"Yeah, found mine a few days ago," Ragna told him. "So are we ready to get started?"

"Almost, besides you we're waiting on one other guy to show up. Also…" Diabel told him before scratching the back of his head. "Ki… baou's here too." Ragna groaned as he facepalmed at the news. "In my defence I didn't know he was going to be here until after I messaged you… but you think you can try to get along?"

"Don't ask me to do the impossible, I ain't a miracle worker," Ragna told him harshly, his mood now effectively ruined. "Don't tell me he's the one that put this thing on."

"No, you'll meet her in just a second," Diabel said as he gestured into the town. "Come on, I'll show you to the meeting spot."

"Lead on," Ragna said bluntly as he followed the blue haired knight through the mostly vacant village streets. They didn't get far before Ragna's stomach let out a low growl. "...They got food where we're going, 'cause I didn't get my breakfast before this."

"There's an inn close by that serves a pretty okay pot roast," Diabel told Ragna. "It's not great or anything, but it'll keep you full."

"Greeeeeat," Ragna muttered sarcastically. "If I can't find any decent food soon, I'm going to go insane."

"You could always try cooking," Diabel suggested, reminding Ragna that he'd (sort of) promised that he'd try cooking with Asuna at some point. "Well, you'll have to worry about cooking later, we're here." As he opened the door, Ragna noted that the place they were meeting in was a small abandoned shack with little more than a few chairs and a table set up for the gathering. He took notice of Kibaou and the two quickly scowled at each other… though it didn't escalate beyond that.

"I'm glad that you managed to make it," the other member, a woman with violet hair, said as she rose to her feet and approached Ragna and almost seemed to inspect him. "So you're the _Grim Reaper_ from the first floor, the one that managed to take down an unleashed _Ilfang_?"

"...Something like that, but those stories are a far cry from what really happened," the Reaper tried to tell her.

"I doubt it, Diabel here has had plenty to say about you." Diabel scratched the back of his head with slight embarrassment. "While Kibaou here won't say two words about you." The strangely haired player just growled as he crossed his arms and refused to face Ragna. "But if you insist, I'll have to hope to see what you can do myself. You can call me Sakura and I lead the _Winged Maidens Guild_."

"A fellow guild leader, eh? Not too many of us at the moment," Ragna said as the two shook hands, feeling that Sakura at least deserved to be heard out. "Call me Ragna, it beats having to say _Grim Reaper_. I'm the head of the _Final Rebellion_ guild."

"Yes, one of my girls went to your smith shop just last week," the woman told him with just the slightest of smiles. "You can tell your blacksmith that she's quite satisfied with her mace."

"I'll give her a glowing review then," Ragna said as he took a seat at the table (careful to stay far as he could from Kibaou). "Who else are we waiting on?" It was just then that there was a small knock at the door. "...Apparently no one."

The door opened to reveal a man in heavy plated light grey armor. He seemed to be more mature than most of the other players, as evident by his defined jaw and face along with his greying hair done into a ponytail. He had a stern sort of aura around him and carried himself with plenty of dignity.

"Heathcliff?" Sakura asked.

"I am," the man strongly responded.

"Good, take a seat and we'll be able to begin the meeting," she instructed. He did so and Sakura cleared her throat with a short cough. "First, I'd like to thank the four of you for coming on such short notice. With your help we should be able to clear this boss and focus our efforts on the fourth floor."

' _So she does know where the boss is,'_ Ragna thought to himself. ' _...Instead of charging in head first, I should make sure that they can handle these monsters without me, gotta make sure I'm not needed everywhere I go.'_

"There are two reasons that I chose you four in particular," Sakura continued. "The first is that all of you are strong and recognizable team leads. Three of you were prominent figures in the first floor's boss raid while Heathcliff's team is well credited with clearing out several of this area's dungeons. The second reason is the madaleons that all of you have collected."

"Yeah, I was meaning to ask what the point of these was," Ragna told her as he brought his coin out of the inventory and set it on the table. "I just got this thing from one of the quests I completed."

"Yes, these are an additional reward that you can get from completing quests on this floor though their rarity must mean that the chance of obtaining them is exceptionally low. As for their use, I think these are the keys to opening the boss door. The dungeon to the south of here has a giant doorway at the end that holds a door with a mural on it. The door won't open, but when I stuck my medallion into one of the five indents it seemed to light up part of it…"

"...Meaning we're the key to getting in," Kibaou summarized, finally breaking his long standing silence. "And then we're fighting the boss?"

"Right, with the game throwing surprises like this at us, we can't take any risks. For all I know, these coins might only net us a single try against the monster… meaning we'll have to make it count."

"A reasonable suggestion," Heathcliff agreed, though his face continued to remain stoic. "And what was your plan of attack?"

"My plan is for us to stage a twenty player assault on the boss at noontime tomorrow. Everyone here will contribute themselves and three other members to the attack," Sakura said. "We'll divide our forces between a seven player attack force to deal straight damage to the boss, a seven player Tanker force to take the heavy blows and allow time to heal, and a six player skirmisher force to deal with the boss's minions and provide support wherever it's needed." Sakura then crossed her arms. "With my current weapons and skill set, I'll be on Attack duty."

"...Tank Duty," Diabel volunteered, holding up his hand.

"Attack Duty," Kibaou said soon afterwards.

"...Attack," Ragna muttered, though he knew that would mean working directly alongside Kibaou. For now he could only hope they'd be too busy focusing on their work to annoy each other.

"Tank Duty," Heathcliff told the group. "Though I'm afraid I have a problem to bring to the table; I can only secure two other players to the raid."

"What? Only two?" Diabel asked in shock. "But what about the team you've been using to clear all of those dungeons?"

"Those are the two that I'll be bringing to this raid," Heathcliff calmly explained. "Though they are just two, I can attest to their abilities and they both would make amazing skirmishers in the attack."

"That still leaves us short a member," Sakura reminded.

"Meaning I'll step in and provide us with another member," Kibaou offered, surprising Diabel and especially Ragna… before he gave a smug grin that made Ragna's gut go in a knot. "I've got a perfect force of four other Attack members to join us. They'll bring that thing down in no time."

' _The hell is he… wait a minute,'_ Ragna considered before realizing what Kibaou was going after. ' _The son of a bitch just wants the last attack bonus, that why he's trying to take up as many damage dealers as he can get.'_ It was evident that Diabel had caught onto this too, as he could only give a glare at someone that he'd tried time and again to give the benefit of doubt.

"Maybe you could try for a more… _varied_ force," Sakura offered, trying to be tactful. "After all we don't know what anyone else is going to be offering."

"Maybe, but my five have already fought alongside each other the longest, so they'll already know the best setups for taking this thing down," he suggested slyly. "If you think about it, this is the best way to minimize casualties… isn't it?"

' _And now he's trying to spin this his way,'_ Ragna thought to himself with a growl, waiting to see how the other guild leaders would take this attempt.

"I…" Sakura began, trying to come up with a retort… in the end, she didn't have one. "I'll be taking the team that I discovered that location with… which consists of two tanks and a skirmisher."

"Right then…" Diabel said with a sigh as it looked like Kibaou was getting his way here. Trying not to make anything worse, he turned to Ragna. "What about you?"

"I dunno, I'll just fill up any holes that we have left," he promised his old ally from Floor One, trying not to look directly at Kibaou's victorious smugness. Protesting here would've been voicing everyone's concerns… but in the end, Ragna decided it wouldn't be worth it.

"In that case, along with myself I have two other tanks that I can bring to the attack with one effective skirmisher," Diabel finished.

"Then that means that you still need to find us a tank and the final two skirmishers," Sakura informed Ragna, who only gave her a small nod. The organizer of this raid then opened her menu, made a few quick taps to send something to each of the leaders and rose to her feet. "We'll meet in front of the door to the boss at noon tomorrow. I've already sent each of you the map data for the dungeon so none of you should lose your way there… I hope to see you all."

"Tomorrow then," Ragna promised as he rose and was the first to leave the room. As he left, he couldn't help but notice that Heathcliff was staring at him like Sakura had been earlier, like he was trying to analyze him. The Reaper promptly decided to ignore this and exited the small shack.

 _Later that evening_

"Sheesh, he's late as usual and he made us all come here to the meeting," Liz said with a small complaint as she crossed her arms in the small chair.

She wasn't alone in the small room being rented out, every member of the _Final Rebellion_ guild was in attendance from Agil, to the girls, the entirety of Klein's old _Fuurin Kazan_ guild, to Sinon. Sinon herself still hadn't become a member of Ragna's guild, but she had continued to work with Ragna in order to get over her insecurities in combat. Even after she'd felt satisfied with the results, Leafa had continued to insist that they work together… something Sinon realized she didn't have much of a choice in.

"Prob'ly because he never uses a _Teleport Crystal_ unless he's certain he has to," Argo said as she leaned against the wall, looking over her screen's information. "He's just got ta town, he'll be here soon enough."

"Must be important if he called us here out of nowhere," Agil said, his massive frame almost too big for the small chair to hold him. "Last time we wanted to meet, he needed to have Klein get in contact with everyone instead of doing it himself."

"Eh, he's a busy guy and strong players are in high demand with those that are falling behind in the levels," Klein explained coming to Ragna's defense. "By the way, I've been hearing about new guilds that are starting to pop up here and there around _SAO_. There are still way more teams than official guilds, but we might have some competition down the line for the big scores."

"I don't think that's a bad thing, bigger guilds means it'll be easier to finally clear _SAO_ ," Leafa told the group with a big smile, her confident nature showing itself in full.

"That is if Ragna leaves anything for the rest of us," Asuna said, remembering Ragna's battle against _Ilfang_ back on the first floor. The door then slowly opened revealing the Reaper and guildlead himself as he stepped into the room and closed the door behind him.

"Sorry I'm late, got caught up with a mob of monsters on the way here and… anyways, let's just get the meeting started," he began before pausing, trying to figure out how he was going to lead the meeting. "So I've got good news, someone's managed to find the door to the Floor Boss and we've been asked to participate in the raid."

"You serious?" Klein asked before smiling. "Dude that's awesome news! I think we're all ready for a chance to get out of this rain!"

"Let me finish," Ragna interrupted. Ee didn't raise his voice but it was powerful enough to stop his friend cold. "We're not the only ones participating and we've got a specific quota to fill, other than having me on the Attack force during the boss raid, I'm going to need a Tank and two Skirmishers." He paused as he glanced around the room. "I just want to set the record straight here and now; if I don't choose you for the boss raid, that doesn't mean I think any less of you and I'm not choosing the others for any special privilege… I'm just trying to make the right team with the info I got to make sure everyone makes it back." No one spoke up. "If anyone _doesn't_ want me to consider them for the boss raid, you should speak up now."

"...I'm not stepping out, but I do have something to say," Yuuki said as she got up from her seat and walked up the Reaper. Ragna didn't say anything, though he give a slight grimace as Yuuki put her hands on her hips and leaned in to look authoritative. "You need to lighten up; you're talking like you're trying to make plans for someone's funeral."

"Eh?" Ragna asked, a little off put by the comparison. "I'm just trying to be serious here…"

"And you're acting way too stiff about it," Yuuki told him before poking Ragna square in the chest. "Just loosen up, be yourself as the team lead, all of us already get what you're trying to say so have some confidence, even if that means that you'll be crass as usual."

"Fine, fine…" Ragna grumbled as he scratched the back of his head. "Anyone else?"

"...Is it okay if I second Yuuki's decision?" Silica asked as she raised a hand. Ragna had to keep himself from glaring at the younger girl.

"With _that_ said, let me try to figure out who the hell I'm taking tomorrow," Ragna muttered as he made another scan of the room… he decided he'd get the obvious pick out of the way first. "Agil, think you can manage as a Tank tomorrow?"

"Thought you'd never ask; even got some new heavy armor that's upgraded and ready to go," the axe user told Ragna with a confident smile. "I'm your man."

"I'm counting on it," Ragna told him before considering his options for skirmishers. ' _...I probably shouldn't leave him out.'_ "Klein…"

"Yeah, buddy?" the redhead asked, the hopefulness in his voice at the thought of being included painfully apparent to everyone there.

"...Think I might need my _Co-Commander_ backing me up as a Skirmisher," Ragna said, though he figured he might've been laying it on kind of thick. That didn't seem to matter to Klein as he gave happy anime tears while getting compliments and encouraging words from his original guildmates. ' _...Hard to say I didn't make the right choice with that one, now for the hard part.'_

While there wasn't exactly a _bad_ pick for a second skirmisher, Ragna had trouble trying to decide who he thought would fill the role the best. Deciding that everyone had nearly equal positive qualities to the role, he decided to focus on who would on any setbacks that the players would have.

Klein's original guild members were out. While together they were a force to be reckoned with, apart they were mostly seen as extremes for the roles given. They were always at their best while working together to cover their individual members weaknesses and while they had Klein to lead and organize them.

Argo was more focused on the out of combat skills than trying to get into straight fights, so it wouldn't make nearly as much sense to risk bringing her into a risky raid like this, especially when she didn't have any special info to keep her safe.

Lisbeth would have made for a decent choice. She'd been working on her own set of armor and it was nearly as effective as Agil's, but that also meant that she was slightly slower among the players and she'd need to get around fast to work effectively as a skirmisher.

Asuna and Yuuki had speed and offense covered, but Ragna also knew that they were slightly lacking in defenses with their lighter armor and needed to be sure they could survive if they were surrounded by the boss's minions or took a hit from the main threat itself.

Similarly, Silica was also out. While Pina's healing breath would make a great addition, her defences were still among the lowest and if Pina got hit even once it could spell trouble for the young dragon tamer.

Out of everyone so far, Leafa seemed to be the best pick for the role of a skirmisher. She had good sword skills, a solid balance of attack and defence, and could be quick on her feet to get to where she was needed. The only problem was her devotion, rather the over abundant amount she had of it. Ragna had seen her during the boss raid back on floor one and while he knew that she meant well, her zealous dedication to making sure no lives were lost could get her killed if he wasn't careful. That left…

"Sinon."

"...Me?" the spear user asked as she glanced around the room, looking at everyone else in surprise that she was the one that had been called on… or was even up for consideration. "Are… are you sure?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Ragna asked as he crossed his arms and tried to look like his regular moody self. In truth, he was trying to gauge everyone else's reactions. There was some surprise at his final choice to be sure, but no one seemed upset or disappointed that they'd been left out.

"I… I'm not even a part of your guild," Sinon tried to remind him.

"So? I still think that you'd be a solid enough fit for our boss raid," the Reaper told seriously. "I'm not going to pressure you into going, choice is yours… but I think you're ready for this."

' _It's a big responsibility,'_ Sinon thought to herself considering the risks that were involved. ' _But… I owe Ragna for helping me get this far in the first place… and if he thinks I'm ready…'_ "Okay, I'll help you out as a Skirmisher for the boss raid."

"Trust me, you'll do fine," Klein promised, trying to give her some confidence. "Besides, you'll have me there to watch you back… not to mention you've got front row seats to Ragna going all out."

"Uh, about that…" the Reaper began as he scratched the back of his head. "I… I'm actually probably going to try and go as a 'team player' this time around, so… you probably won't be seeing much of that flashy stuff if I can help it."

"Aw, but we barely get to see any of your cool moves as it is," Leafa said disappointedly. "Whenever we go out as a group we always have to twist your arm in order to get you to use them and even then you barely fight with them even though they're stronger than regular weapon skills."

"It's still my choice to make," Ragna told her seriously, before smirking. "Besides, you're not even going to be there tomorrow. You rather I just use the moves whenever you're not around?"

"I...I'm not saying that…" the blonde denied, turning her head away and crossing her arms. "But it might make it easy for us as a whole to clear the game if you're really giving it your all out there."

"Cut the guy a little slack," Klein said, seeming to playfully come to his leader's defence once more. "He's just trying to tone down the badassery because he wants people to think he's human."

"...Human, eh?" Ragna considered enigmatically as he rose to his feet. "It beats having them think I'm a monster at least."

"Come on, who in their right mind has ever thought you're a monster?" Liz asked as she put her hands palm up and shook her head. "A moody loner and a sarcastic jerk sure, but a... mon… ster…?" The _Blacksmith_ had a hard time finishing her sentence, what with how intense and serious Ragna's gaze at her was.

"...Remember floor one," he reminded, his serious face going to a smirk. Lizbeth remembered, but she was more offput by that expression her leader had given. "I want the four of us leaving for the dungeon at eight tomorrow to get the chance to warm up. Do whatever you want to until then, its your time." Closing the door behind him, he left his team to themselves.

Now that he was alone in the hallway, the Reaper gave a relaxed stretch as he looked to the the small open window allowing a faint breeze into the building. It was already mid-afternoon and the sun was slowly beginning to set off in the distance, casting a yellow hue over the third floor. Signs of the constant raining were still apparent out the window as a few stray drops of leftover water leaked off of the roof. Though it wasn't too loud, he could hear a small bustle from the outside streets as players searched for quests or tried to grab early meals. Ending his short stretch, the Reaper let out a relaxed sigh.

' _Just gotta keep things as they are, if I'm careful everything should work out.'_

" _Probably, but are you sure you're doing it for the right reasons Spikes?"_

Immediately, Ragna jumped to a battle ready stance even though he was inside a safe zone. Gritting his teeth as he kept his hand on his sword's hilt, he glanced around the empty hallway not seeing any changes… no, there were subtle key changes; the sunlit color looked like it had faded to an eerie gray, the air felt stiff around him, a water drop remained suspended in the air and sounds over outside conversation had died entirely. He was trapped in a time stop, one where only he was able to move.

" _Didn't mean to scare you, but I thought it was time you and I finally met… and I'm afraid I have a little something that I'm going to need your help with."_

"You've got a damn funny way of asking for help," Ragna swore as he didn't hold bring down his guard in the slightest. "Who the hell are you?"

" _Well... I guess you could call me your 'Guardian Angel'."_

"Bullshit."

" _No no, I'm dead serious. I kept you from fading away completely, didn't I?"_

That made Ragna pause. If they could cause a timestop in only the game that would have been one thing, but knowing about who he was and the world he came from suggested another level of power entirely. And if this person was strong enough to save him from his own erasure, he knew that as he was now he didn't stand anything resembling a chance against them if it came to a fight.

" _Take this, would you?"_ the voice requested right before a small pyramid shaped crystal appeared right in front of Ragna, giving off a calming pale glow. " _It'll take you to where I am now… and we don't have a lot of time, so be ready for a rushed explanation."_

"...Tch, what a pain in the ass," the Reaper muttered, though he still took the crystal and vanished in a flash of light. The area then returned to normal as time progressed; the sun once more cast its glow, the air returned to normal, the water droplet outside resumed its fall to the ground, the sounds of the players outdoors sounded off, and Ragna's team exited the room wondering where on earth their leader had left to in such a hurry.

 _ **Meanwhile**_

"This… this is just outside of _Iflang's_ chambers," Ragna muttered to himself, looking outside the doorway to the boss room. The air and coloration here was normal like it should have been. Ragna didn't see any other players in the area… only someone that clearly wasn't a part of this world.

The figure in question was a little shorter than himself, had a skinny build, and somewhat pale skin. Rough whiskers decorated his face and his black hair was almost messily unkempt. He wore a white button up dress shirt without a tie with a black buttoned vest covering it. His black slacks were slim fitting and lead to a pair of open tipped sandals. He wore dark tinted sunglasses that rested on his nose and didn't cover his eyes. He kept both of his hands in his pockets and stood with an easy slouch, but Ragna had dealt with his type enough to know he couldn't drop his guard; not with all of the power that was radiating off of this guy's soul.

"Sorry to call you out of the blue, but like I said earlier time isn't something I have in large supply," the figure said to him. "As far as introductions go I'm Sanae Hanekoma, but I'd prefer it if you call me H, maybe Sanae. Anyways, since you don't like the phrase _guardian angel_ I guess you could say I'm a sort of… the term you'd understand the best is _Observer_. I watch different worlds, keep tabs on them and only get involved when I see it's absolutely needed. This one here isn't my main world and I make a point to NEVER get involved with yours… but I guess you could say that you both needed help."

"...So you brought me here then?" Ragna demanded with a scowl.

"Hey, you couldn't stay in your own world and despite your best efforts I don't think you were ready to give up the ghost just yet," he explained before his lax attitude became more serious. "Listen, all I could give your existence is a short extension. It's your choice to do with it what you will, but I've got a problem here that only you can fix."

"And I should care, because…?"

"Because if it gets out of hand it could spread into the _SAO_ ' _s_ core code and kill every player in this game, that's why," Sanae told him. Ragna didn't say anything, but only nodded as he waited for an explanation. "Basic summary of what to expect. You remember that power boost that _Ilfang_ got when you fought it in that room. Well that obviously wasn't part of _SAO's_ design. What that thing really amounted to was a culmination of the _Interference_ ; unintentionally energy that was created when you were brought over. I thought it had been destroyed when you defeated _Illfang_ , but all you did was briefly make it dissipate. It's gathering in the other room and it needs to be put down for good."

" _Interference_ , eh?" the asked as he thought back. "If it's the same stuff I'm thinking of, then it looks a lot like _Seither_."

"And that's not by coincidence; the _Interference_ came directly from your crossover and you've certainly had a higher exposure to _Seither_ than most back in your home world," Sanae told him. "If acts the same as regular _Seither_ , then you should be able to absorb it into your _Azure Grimoire_."

"...If that was all I had to watch out for, you wouldn't make me meet you out here," the Reaper decided. "I'm in for a fight, aren't I?"

"More than likely," Sanae told him with regretful sigh, as he adjusted his glasses. "I'll explain the rest after you beat that thing back. I would hurry if I were you; my seals can only hold it back for so long."

"Seals?" Ragna asked.

"Like I said; later," Sanae promised him as the grand doorway opened, though no physical force was applied from either man. "Last word of warning; the code in that room is likely broken in a few key places. You should be fine given you're a special force in this world, but don't expect any over your healing items to work."

"Doesn't matter; I don't carry those things because I'm the one that needs them," Ragna muttered as he walked into the boss chamber.

"...Wonder how long it's going to take him to drop that little front he's got up," Hanekoma sighes to himself as he gets a crick out of his neck. "...Should've brought my thermos with me."

As Ragna proceeded into the boss chamber, he didn't find anything different from the time that he'd first been in there during the first floor raid. Sure, there was a distinct lack of Kobolds (something he didn't have a problem with) and the room was completely illuminated upon entering, but the room was just as empty and spacious as it ever was. Keeping his nerves about him and bringing his sword off of his belt to rest the blunt end on his shoulder, he cautiously moved forward as the large heavy doors closed behind him.

' _Something oughta have showed up by now,'_ Ragna thought to himself as he again scanned the room with his eyes, before looking to his right hand which remained open. ' _And if it's seither I should be able to sense it no problem.'_ Clicking his tongue, he closed his eyes and tried to focus on finding the threat… he didn't have to focus for long. ' _It's faint, but there's a connection somewhere in this room… Wait, it's getting stronger? No, it's getting clo-'_

 _ **CLANG!**_

Had Ragna reacted just an instant later, he would've had his head cut off (or he could've just taken damage per _SAO's_ systems, but he didn't want to flip that coin). Turning around with instinctual prowessness drilled into him by his mentor, he managed thwart his attacker's assassination attempt from his own shadow. Gritting his teeth, he identified the blade that had come so close to ending his life… was his. Not having a chance to question it, the Reaper and the attacker both swung their swords, the impact sending both fighters sliding back.

Raising his head with a second to catch his thoughts, the Reaper had a chance to take a look at the opponent that stood before him… or rather he could get a look at his own reflection.

(Cue _**Persona 4 Golden**_ _I'll Face Myself_ Extended)

The being before him reflected him so perfectly it almost hurt to look at. In fact with his features like hair style, eye color, and the hand carrying _Aramasa_ reversed, it was more like looking into an exact copy of a mirror. It even captured his narrow and harsh glare perfectly, something that irked the Reaper worse than it should have.

"What the goddamn hell are you?" the Reaper vulgarly demanded as he brought his sword up.

The creature didn't offer a response, only having its form be consumed by a vast surge of _Seither-_ like energy in front of Ragna's eyes. The skin, hair, and clothing turned pitch black, the creatures form grew sharper edges and a sleeker frame, and its eyes gave off a haunting glow. Ragna watched as he saw the name appear before the monster in text that was far more eloquent than what showed up in front of your normal beast.

 _ **The Infernal Phantom**_

"Tch, least I got an answer," the Reaper muttered humorlessly as the monster rushed forward.

Even with as limited as he currently was, Ragna could still keep up as the Phantom moved at speeds too fast for the naked eye. The two once more exchanged slashes with their swords than sent them sliding back, but this time Ragna followed up with his _**Hell's Fang**_ technique which forced the monster to guard. Unable to use the additional wave of darkness from the technique, the Reaper instead elected for a powerful slash that sent the monster off of its feet. Transforming the _Aramasa_ as quickly as he could, the Reaper swung his massive scythe and would have made contact with the monster had it not barely countered with its own blade swing. Flipping back once in the air, it landed on the ground and rushed forward in another assault.

Now that both were used to their own strength, both Ragna and the Phantom held their ground as they exchanged powerful sword slashes. Stepping back to avoid the Phantom's next strike, Ragna then stepped forward with a powerful overhead swing that his opponent was forced to guard against. Swinging his sword around, he managed to get in another upwards swing that once more clashed against the guard though this time his opponent's defense seemed to be faltering. Acting as fast as he could, Ragna turned into his classic roundhouse kick, only for the Phantom to cancel the attack by countering with a kick of its own.

Ragna tried to go for a follow up slash, but was forced to shift his body to the side to narrowly avoid the Phantom's quicker stab. The Phantom then took the stretched sword and viciously swung it to the side, forcing Ragna to guard and sending him sliding back. The Phantom then quickly followed and swung its sword in a harsh horizontal cut missing Ragna as he leaped into the air to avoid the attack. Seizing the advantage, Ragna swung his blade downward to finally catch the Phantom. If he'd had _**Nightmare Edge**_ or even _**Belial Edge**_ he would've used that now, but at the moment he was strapped for moves. This would have to do the trick for now… it didn't.

" _ **INFERNO DIVIDER!"**_

"The hell- AURGH!" Ragna shouted as the Phantom announced the attack and drove it's blade upwards in its signature uppercut slash. The move cut through his own attack like it was nothing and ever gave off a powerful cut across his chest. Even though he only got the _cut_ animation across his body it still hurt like all hell. Before he could move, the Phantom then scored an upward punch to his head while they were still in midair before blasting him back with a explosive punch to his chest. The Reaper's back stuck the back with a loud crash, but despite the pain he was in he couldn't rest as the Phantom didn't halt in its assault.

' _Not good,'_ Ragna thought to himself as he raised his blade and managed to counter the Phantom's strike again. He was about to go for a powerful overhead slash, but saw the Phantom readying another _**Inferno Divider**_ and forced himself back. The attack proved to be a fake out and the Phantom instead went for a powerful horizontal swing, leaving Ragna to dive to the side. He rose his guard to deflect the follow up slash, only to get blasted back once more. ' _Really not good.'_

The two then engaged in a series of blows, though it was starting to become evident that Ragna was at disadvantage. He couldn't be bothered by this fact as he was too busy trying to counter this things attacks and keep himself alive. Through the conflict, he racked his brain trying to get a hold on how to beat this thing.

' _Unlike everything else I've fought in here, I can't just overpower this bastard,'_ he though as he guarded against a powerful slash with his blade. ' _This thing fights just like me and it's got my techniques while I'm just stuck with one move… and only the first half of it.'_ Stepping back, he managed to avoid another _**Inferno Divider**_ _. 'Actually, this thing's only got one of my moves and it doesn't look like it can transform it's weapon like I can. Still doesn't mean I can beat it with just that, but…'_

Pausing for a second, Ragna thought over his options before placing both hands on his weapon and charging a sword skill. Hitting the Phantom with a powerful _Blast,_ he managed to cleave through it's guard and inflict damage. Before the Phantom could recover, he spun into a powerful roundhouse kick and sent the monster sprawling backwards.

' _Guess I gotta rely on the game's skills to get me through this one,'_ the Reaper decided as he saw that he'd given this thing a fair bit of damage with those last attacks. ' _But I don't have a lot that I can use… guess that just means I just can't let up against this bastard!'_

Roaring, the Reaper ran forward unleashed _Aramasa's_ scythe form as he made a powerful slash against his opponent's guard. The Phantom managed to hold its footing, but Ragna's forceful attack did cause it to lurch under the force. Reverting his weapon as he charged up a sword skill, Ragna unleashed a horizontal slash which quickly closed the distance as he managed to knock the Phantom's copied sword away and sent him off balance. Swinging his sword as hard as he could, he cut the monster from head to foot.

Bringing his sword back with both hands, Ragna began charging his two handed sword skill. The Phantom quickly unleashed another _**Inferno Divider**_ to counter the attack, but Ragna had only been baiting the attack and quickly canceled the skill before backstepping at the last second. Ragna caught his opponent with his blade while it was in the air and sent him back to the ground with a quick slash.

" _ **HELL'S FANG!"**_ Ragna shouted as he caught his opponent in the chest with a powerful lunge with his _BlazBlue_. During the attack, he'd brought his sword back with his free hand and charged his _Horizontal Slash_ while the was Phantom was still lurching from his original attack. Catching his swing and holding his sword with both hands, Ragna roared as he went right into his two-handed _Blast_ skill, cleaving his opponent from head to foot.

(End Theme)

Time seemed to slow around the Reaper as his mirrored self was blasted off of his feet from the force of that final attack. Ragna kept his eyes on the Phantom, not ready to let his guard down if it had a last ditch attack effort. What actually happened was the Phantom lost the darkness that had been coating it, revealing the mirrored appearance that lay beneath. It looked gravely wounded, bloody, and in intense pain. It looked at Ragna with a terrified look in its eyes; eyes of a man that had lost everything… before exploding in an eruption of _Seither_.

Knowing that he still had a job to do, Ragna didn't let what he'd seen haunt him as he rose his _Azure Grimoire_ arm and held it steady in front of him. The _Seither_ seemed to scream as it was violently forced into Ragna's right arm. The Reaper didn't move under the force of his absorption, holding his arm up until he was sure he'd absorbed every last trace of the _Interference._ Giving a sigh, he headed to the boss door to confront Sanae… only to find a small text box appear in front of him.

 _Acquired New Sword Skill:_ _ **Inferno Divider**_

"So that's where you were…" Ragna muttered as he closed the screen and opened the boss room's doors. Being used to be ditched by people who were supposed to give him answers, he was surprised to see that Sanae was still standing outside the door and waiting for him as he promised. "That felt like a lot more than _Interference._ "

"I didn't know, honestly," Sanae promised him as he scratched the back of his head. "To think that a piece of your own power was inside of that thing; frankly I thought it had been lost during your erasure or when I forced you to cross over, but here it is." Sanae gave him a small smile. "At the very least, it looks like you got something useful."

"Yeah, a skill that I won't even be able to use tomorrow since I'm trying to lay low; _real useful_ ," Ragna told him testily. "You promised me answers."

"And I'll tell you what I can; there are just some things that are against the rules to talk about," Sanae told him with a sigh. "Knowing you, you're probably not happy to hear that again, but there's nothing I can do about it."

"Tch, honest to god," the Reaper muttered moodily. "So… is that it? I'm finished with all of the _Interference_?"

"No, this wasn't the only place where you're going to have to absorb your own power back. Bright side is you'll likely get a power boost or a move like what just happened, but there's not much more I can promise you besides that. I… actually…"

"What?" Ragna asked, feeling that he was in for more trouble.

"Listen, I won't be able to take you up to any of the locked floors without setting off several alarms inside the game, nor will I be able to tell you which floor you'll need to absorb the interference on… but as soon as those floors get unlocked I can tell you if you need to involved, what dungeon you need to go to, and I can keep the other players off of the floor's fields with my Seals… that's all I'm permitted to do here."

' _So he's got rules that he's got to follow too,'_ Ragna thought to himself. ' _Meaning he's also got someone that he needs to answer to…'_ "I'll have to settle with that for right now, but what about those seals that you were talking about?"

"Right, those," Sanae said before opening his palm. "These little beauties create a double layered barrier. The first one sends a subliminal message into a person's mind when they get close, basically telling them that they don't feel like getting any closer. That's enough to send most people away. If they end up getting any further though, it turns to a fear. The seals send a message to anyone who got the first layer that there's a danger up ahead that they're not ready. It should be enough to turn almost anyone in here away."

"That's great and all…" Ragna began. "But… what exactly are you showing me?"

"You mean you can't see the sigil?" Sanae asked as he looked in front of his open palm with an eyebrow raised. "Funny, if anything you should at least be able to see a blurry outline."

"And I'm telling you that I can't see it," the Reaper reaffirmed.

"...Meaning you're probably more broken than I thought," Sanae decided with a sigh.

' _Broken,'_ Ragna repeated in his head, not appreciating the term used. Giving a passing glance to the chipped and scratched _Aramasa_ he carried, he couldn't help but feel that Sanae wasn't wrong in his assessment. "So this is the only way I'm going to get back to my old self?"

"I doubt you could ever get back to a true 100%, not after how you tried to erase yourself," H told Ragna. "Collecting interference might be the only way that you'll be able to unlock the techniques related to your _Azure Grimoire_ , but there other ways to get other techniques from your world… like turning _Aramasa_ into a scythe for one thing."

"Right, I got that one after I leveled up," he remembered.

"Past that though, try using your skills where you can… chances are some of your old moves might actually be buried under the ones your still have," Sanae told him. "That's about all I can tell you…"

"No, there's still one more thing I want from you," Ragna demanded. "You said that all you were able to do was give me an extension on my existence… Just how long do I have?"

"Can't say," Sanae told him bluntly.

"That was quick. Why? Because you don't know yourself or you're not allowed to say anything?" the Reaper demanded, his eye going to a sharp scowl.

"Neither; it's because I don't want you to know," he told Ragna, not a hint of joking in his words. "If you've got a timetable to work with that either going to get you to panic or it's going to make you lax. I told you that I gave you that time to handle something meaningful, so I suggest you get started on finding out what it is you really want… You never know, tomorrow might be your last day."

"So in short, you want me to live every day like it's my last? What kind of motivational poster crap is that?" Ragna asked with a scowl.

"Call it whatever you want," Sanae said, not backing down from the intimidating glare. "You're still not getting an answer."

"Be that way then, it's not the first time I've had to go through this thing with a damn _Observer_ ," Ragna told him crassly, though he actually seemed more annoyed than upset.

"Heh, you're clearly used to be left in the dark; especially when it concerns you," Sanae said with a laugh. "I'll be seeing you when you get to an infected level, but probably not before then. Just try to keep yourself alive until then, no more plans to erase yourself."

"Funny," the Reaper muttered as he started heading towards the boss doors which had remained opened, before pausing. "...Thanks... I guess."

"Hmm? You say something," Sanae asked him, pretending to stretch his neck so that Ragna had no way of seeing the small smirk on his face.

"Nothing," Ragna told him, heading through the chambers so he could get to the second floor and from there take a teleporter to the third. ' _I should probably call it a day… got an important Boss Raid to handle in the morning.'_

"...That's funny," Sanae said to himself, taking his slim framed glasses off and began clearing them with a small handkerchief which he kept specifically for these uses. While doing this his smile hadn't dropped… rather it had grown bittersweet. "He actually thinks I know how long he has left."

 _ **Author's Note**_

 _ **Well this took long enough. I wasn't sure if I'd ever get a chapter out. Funny story for those of you that follow my other works, my original plan was to make my next chapter a humorous little epilogue for the first season to 'Grimm Reaper's of Remnant' but that plan didn't fall through… kinda killed me to abandon a chapter I had thought was going to be a riot in my head.**_

 _ **So… Mr. Sanae Hanekoma. For those of you who aren't in the know, he's a character from the video game 'The World Ends With You' that I just decided to add in on a whim in the first writing of this story. While I have said that I'm changing things around, he seemed popular here. I decided 'what the hell?' about brought him back, largely in the same roll as before.**_

 _ **Anyways, here's to another chapter being dropped. Let's get a couple of review responses in.**_

 _Dread Grim Reaper_ : Not to worry, you made your point clear.

 _Wlyman2009_ : I think that bell might need to toll more than once.

 _Red Burning Dragon_ : I'm honestly split on whether to use bows or not. While I think they could make an interesting addition, I honestly can't help but feel that they'd cause some conflict with the whole 'up close and person' motif that SAO should be about.

 _Armedlord 2.0_ : Throwing spears never seemed to be a thing in SAO, but I could see Sinon doing that. And while Sinon was seen using a dagger in one of the SAO games, in the other (and more developed one) it had her using a Spear, so that's what I went with.

 _TheEmeraldMage_ : There's one certain person in the reveiws (they know who they are) that have been demanding I throw in Alice, but I'm not all too sure myself.

 _The Unplanner:_ Right, _that_ chapter… wonder if I should do something similar?

 _Reclusive Dork_ : I can't see Ragna joking with something so serious, but maybe if a certain someone was there…

 _Touhou Fanatic_ : Funny, that kind of reminds me of this same fan pic that I once saw. Klein: "Where's my harem?" Liz: "Aren't you part of Kirito's harem?" But I digress.

 _Lightkirinhuruname_ : Yare yare, between you here and _Wide Brimmed Hat_ on my _Grimm Reapers of Remnant_ , I have no shortage of demands for more chapters.

 _Kayen1024_ : If the need for them arises, then yes. This is supposed to be a big game and SAO used a couple of one off characters in its stories as well.

 _Parodoxsteel_ : Thanks, gonna need it.

 _Paladin9800_ : Thanks, not often I get to hear from you.

 _MIDNIGHT The Fallen One_ : Hell's Fang, but you were close.

 _Zaralann_ : Not even I know, and I'm the damn author.

 _ **Take care everyone! Ciao!**_


	5. Connections

_**Sword XI: Connections**_

' _Sanae had said something about some of my old moves being buried under the ones I already have,'_ Ragna thought to himself as he sat upright on the edge of his bed the next morning, his screen before him freshly opened as he cycled through the options to get to his skills. ' _Let's see if that… that… whatever he is, knows what the hell he's talking about.'_ Opening up his section to his skills list. Ragna found the skill he'd acquired just a few hours earlier and opened the description.

 _A hefty and deceivingly quick skyward slash that carries your opponent into the air. The user is invulnerable upon startup and deals fair damage to the opponent while leaving them unable to counter while airborne._

 _XP: 0/10,000_

 _Locked Branching Skills: Straight Punch; Uppercut_

' _Those are the moves that I used to use after I hit someone with the_ _ **Inferno Divider**_ Ragna realized as he looked over the additional moves unlocked. Closing the details on his currently open move, he then went to his previously unlocked _**Hell's Fang**_ ability.

 _Coat your fist in hellish flames of the dark and charge forward at the enemy with a powerful lunge. Covers a strong distance and causes heavy stagger to the enemy if their attack is interrupted._

 _XP: 18/10,000_

 _Locked Branching Skills:_ _ **Gauntlet Hades**_ _ **Not Over Yet**_

' _Okay… no follow ups, but I'll get two completely different techniques,'_ Ragna thought as he looked both moves over. ' _Now that I think about it, I'm still not getting my Axe Kick_ _follow up from my_ _ **Inferno Divider**_ _list… so what gives?'_

Trying to make sense of this, Ragna closed the information for this move and instead opened up the technique _Scythe Form_. He remembered where he'd gotten this technique, from a coincidental level up with Asuna and Leafa the night before the first floor's boss raid. That was back when he'd thought it would be a good idea to clear the boss on his own, to get the fight out of the way on his terms… it brought back a few memories.

 _By channeling your chaotic powers into the Aramasa, unlock the weapons' powerful Scythe form. While wielding this hefty weapon, all skills used will pertain to the Axe skill tree_.

 _XP: 5/10,000_

 _Locked Branching Skills:_ _ **BloodScythe**_

 _Note: This technique has yet to utilize the_ _ **SOUL EATER**_ _ability._

' _That's what it is…'_ Ragna realized as he looked over the information. ' _All of those other follow ups had me using my_ _ **Soul Eater**_ _drive through my attacks… meaning I'm still not able fight with the_ _ **Azure Grimoire**_ _the way I'm supposed to use the damn thing.'_ The truth was, this information sort of felt like a kick in the balls… but Ragna knew that he'd just have to make due with what he still had. ' _Axe techniques though… I guess that's what the game considers the closest thing to a legit Scythe.'_

Taking a quick look over his standard issue _Sword Art Online_ skills, he saw that in addition to _Horizontal Blast_ and _Slash_ he now also carried a technique under the name of _Smash_ … making him realize just how long it had been since he actually gave his stats a thorough look. Giving an annoyed sigh, he was about to close the menu before he saw that it was only five in the morning.

' _Dammit,'_ Ragna thought as he finished closing his menu and tried laying in bed and resting his head against his pillow. Closing his eyes, he tried to slowly force himself back to sleep to get back what few hours he could before having to participate in the floor raid… he didn't feel the least bit drowsy and his body refused to relax. "Screw this."

Raising to his feet, the Reaper headed out his room and down the stairs of the inn. If he couldn't get the damn sleep he wanted, he'd at least get the chance to practice what he'd just learned.

 _ **Floor Three Fields**_

There was a bit of a bitter chill that night as a strong breeze blew through the grain fields of the third floor. Since it was so late at night the floor was covered by a strong shade of darkness and artificial wildlife called in the distance. The were very few players out at this time so it wasn't surprising that the Reaper found that there were none in his immediate area. Hoping he'd encounter something sooner rather than later, the Reaper headed through the fields and didn't get far when he heard the sounds of shuffling behind him.

What he found wasn't the regular Orcish warriors he was used to fighting on this floor. In fact he was certain that this was the first time he'd found this type of monster. Four tall and lanky scarecrow like creatures made of rough burlap, stuffed with hay, and decorated with tarnished farm clothes. Red demon eyes glared harshly at the Reaper as they moved forward with surprising control of their movement instead of the lumbering the Reaper had been expecting. Each of them carried a curved sword in their right hands; covered in rust with the edge badly chipped. The name above them read _Ragged Scarecrow._

"Haven't seen you around before now," Ragna muttered as he grabbed his sword off of his belt. ' _Funny, came out here to practice and the first monsters I come across sort of look like practice dummies.'_

While four of the monsters started by running straight for the Reaper, there was single scarecrow in the back charging up a sword skill. Remembering the skill's description, Ragna rushed forward with his classic _**Hell's Fang**_ and interrupted the attack. Like it had said, this move caused a harsh stager, long enough for Ragna to unleash a powerful two-handed _Blast_ skill against the opponent and finished it off. Two of the scarecrows had a managed to turn around from Ragna's rapid movement to try and slash their sword at the Reaper's exposed back, but his _**Infernal Divider**_ caught both of them and sent carried them into the air with him. Though he knew he lacked the skill, he tried unleashing an _Uppercut_ to both of them from the move, but the action felt so awkward that he nearly missed and barely did any damage to the two. With no chance for a third attack while he was in midair, Ragna landed on the ground and unleashed his weapon into it's Scythe form. Making a great swing, he caught both of the Scarecrows and destroyed them both.

' _Now then, let's try out that Axe skill I got,'_ Ragna thought as he brought his scythe back and began charging the skill on the last remaining Scarecrow. It turned out to be the wrong move as the charge time took far longer than he'd thought it would and the agile scarecrow managed to get a hit in on the Reaper and canceled out the attack. The Reaper gave an annoyed grunt as he took damage, but unlike the damaged he'd taken from fighting his shadow self the previous day this didn't hurt. With Ragna having taken damage, the Scarecrow tried to charge an actual sword skill, but that was the opening that Ragna had been looking for.

" _ **Hell's Fang!"**_ Ragna shouted as he soared forward with the skill once more and caused the Scarecrow to stagger once more. Now that his opponent was staggering, he had time to commit to his _Smash_ skill while keeping his scythe out. Roaring, he swung into the attack and dealt tremendous damage and caused the final monster to shatter.

The results screen came up showing the XP, Col, and items he'd obtained from that last fight. There wasn't anything overly impressive so Ragna discarded the results screen before deciding he'd better go into his skills selection to see if anything had changed there. Turning his scythe back into its base form and putting it back on his belt, he headed into his menu and scanned through the info he needed.

' _Let's see here,'_ he thought to himself as he looked over his moves. ' _That Horizontal Slash move didn't get any thing, but then again I didn't use that move during the fight. My_ _ **Hell's Fang**_ _got two experience points and I used it twice, so that makes some sense. I only got a single point to my_ _ **Inferno Divider**_ _, meaning it's specifically how many times you use it and not the number of opponents you hit. That single point to Scythe Form is bad news; it only counts as a point when you transform it. I also only got a single point for using Smash, so I guess that means it won't count an attack if it gets interrupted. I can understand why they're doing that, but...'_ Ragna gave a long sigh. ' _I seriously got to use these things ten thousand times to master them? That sucks… but I guess with a solid hundred floors to clear I'll have plenty of time.'_

Ragna could have ended his train of thought there and already have been slightly annoyed with what he'd discovered regarding his skills, but of course his mind had to remind him of yet another problem. Since he was trying to stay low regarding his skills, he'd have to focus on using them when he was playing solo. Normally that wouldn't be too large of an issue with his lone wolf nature, but as the head of the guild it meant he'd have people counting on him to get them through the death game.

' _Either I let them know what I can really do with thing and start to expose them to my Azure in full… or I have to settle for grinding out in the dead of night,'_ Ragna considered as he crossed his arms. ' _I still need to make sure word about this thing doesn't go out too far… but maybe if I explain that it's for their eyes only they'd understand.'_ The Reaper sighed as he realized an obvious problem. ' _But it doesn't help at all that I've got a friggin' info broker in my group.'_

His thoughts and consideration having gone on for long enough, he heard the sounds of enemies being spawned into the air and noticed the exact same group of Scarecrows from before. Figuring he'd just have to take this in stride, he brought out his weapon and went to meet them head on.

 _Later -In Front of the Inn-_

"So everybody is ready?" Liz asked, looking over the group of four as they were about to leave the inn and head for the boss dungeon. "Everyone's got their equipment ready and you've got all of the healing items you need?"

"Yeah, we're all set to go," Ragna told her as he stood with a noticeable slouch, fighting back a yawn. He'd ended up staying in the fields longer than he'd meant to and had barely left himself with enough time to scarf down a quick breakfast. Luckily it seemed like everyone else in his party for the day was well rested and ready for a boss fight… well that first one at least.

"Gotta say, I still can't get used to the feeling," Klein admitted with a sigh. "In a couple of hours we'll be raiding the boss room, but it feels like any other day out here… it's almost like the calm before the storm."

"I wish you wouldn't make that comparison, now you've got me worried," Sinon said with a sigh at Klein's wording.

"You two are going to have an easy time with it," Agil told them. "Both of you are on the skirmisher force, you've only got to take the boss's minions. Meanwhile I'm the guy who has the 'get hit so others don't have to' job." He turned to Ragna. "Do me a favor and finish that thing off quick, would ya?"

"Oi oi, what's with all of the complaining all of a sudden?" Ragna demanded from his team. "It's just another boss raid, I don't see what you three are so worried about."

"It's only Sinon's first raid," Klein told him as he thought it over. "That and… when I brought up the raid details to a couple of people last night they were still worried that we're going to have a similar case to what happened back on the first floor."

"Couple a' players managed to clear the second floor without a problem and they didn't have to worry about that darn pow'r boost _Illfang_ got," Argo told the group. She then gave a small mischievous giggle. "Sides, even if that thing does show up, you've already got the key to beating it with you."

"I really wish you wouldn't talk like that," Ragna muttered with a sigh before looking to Leafa, Yuuki, Silica, and Asuna. "What about you four? Got any big plans for today?"

"There's a dungeon on the east side that someone found yesterday," Asuna told the group. "Even if this floor's about to be cleared, we figured that we'd head over there and see what it has to offer."

"Argo told us about it, and she told us that it's really unexplored so far," Yuuki explained excitedly. "If we manage to get in now, we might be able to get first pick of some really awesome items."

"Sounds like pretty damn good info… which begs the question, how much did you charge them?" the Reaper demanded from his Info Broker.

"I didn't charge 'em anything; it's not like I got any reason to charge m' own guild," Argo told him. Due to past experience, Ragna didn't believe that for a second. "Adding their charge to m' Guild Leaders tab on the other hand…"

"I got a friggin' tab now? Dammit Argo," the Reaper swore as the rest of his Guild gave a short laugh. Ragna just shook his head. "We should be heading out then."

"Before you go… can I have a minute?" Leafa asked. Ragna shrugged. "I mean… in private."

"Always something," he muttered before looking to his raid team. "You guys start heading out; I'll catch up in second."

"Don't take too long now," Klein told him with a smirk before turning to his old guild. "Go out there and get some good experience! I want everyone leveled up by the time we're done!"

"YES BOSS!" the former Fuurin Kazan guild shouted in unison to their guild leader. Klein shot them all a smile and started leading Agil and Sinon off.

"Good luck with the boss raid! I know you can do it!" Silica cheered on for the Reaper, leaving Ragna to shoot her a small smirk. Those members who weren't in the raid party headed off to their own destination and soon the only two left in the area were Ragna and Leafa.

"So what was it that you had to ask me in private?" Ragna demanded as he finally let out that yawn he'd been holding back for so long.

"It's about Sinon… are you sure you know what you're doing?" the blonde asked him, leaving Ragna to groan. "What? I'm serious."

"You're asking me when we're about to head out? Your timing is terrible," the Reaper told her with annoyance. "If you didn't want her in the raid party, you should've said something last night."

"It's not the Boss raid that I have a problem with, it's the fact that you're still keeping Sinon at arm's length," Leafa corrected. "When are you going to ask her to join the guild?"

"I won't, can I go now?" Ragna asked boredly, even though it was clear he had next to know chance of getting off that easily. Leafa's scowl made it readily apparent that he wasn't getting off that easily. "What's the problem?"

"The problem is that you're not asking an awesome new player to join, even though you're the reason she's doing so well," Leafa scolded him. "I think that she'd be an amazing fit for the guild and you know she'd be, so why aren't you asking?"

"Because it ain't my decision to make, it's hers," Ragna told Leafa. "If I asked her to join, she'd probably feel like she'd have to do it since I helped her."

"...So?" Leafa questioned, unable to see Ragna's point.

"So I don't want her to feel like she doesn't have a damn choice about where she has to go," the Reaper explained. "If I ask her now she'll join because I helped her and she'd feel like she owed me. I'm not going to pressure her one way or the other; she's got the damn freedom to do what she wants so I'll let her make the call."

"Are… are you saying that I've been too overbearing?" the blonde asked, starting to become worried about her own actions.

"If I'm being completely honest maybe a little, but if you hadn't at least made us meet Sinon could have been killed by now if we hadn't looked out for her," Ragna decided, trying to be fair in his analysis. "If she asks to join the guild I'll let her in no questions asked. But we're a guild on the _Frontlines_ ; there are plenty of safer places that she could join."

"And the reason you're taking her out into a floor raid?" she asked.

"...I'm hoping that if she does well enough out here, she'll at least see how far she's managed to come," Raagna told her. "Like I said, what she chooses to do is on her. That sound fair?"

"I… I guess," Leafa said with a sigh realizing that Ragna still had a strong point. "But… I'd still like you to put an effort in getting her to join us."

"Yare yare…" Ragna sighed. ' _I'm just not getting through to her.'_

"Look, just make her a part of our team and I'll…" Leafa paused for a moment, trying to figure out what the Reaper would possibly want to convince him.

Money? As much as he complained on spending it on food, he actually had a decent amount of Col from his constant fighting. Better equipment? No, he wouldn't give up his custom gear for anything. Food? ...If she could find a way to get some food up for his palette then maybe, but she didn't know how she'd get food of that quality just yet. She thought long and hard, but in the end only one idea came to mind.

" _One date."_

"...Beg pardon?" Ragna asked with a bit of surprise.

"I… I'll go on a date with you if Sinon joins our guild, deal?" Leafa said, her eyes seeming to fixated at her feet as her face was lit by a slight blush. Ragna wasn't having an easy time of keeping his own small blush down at her offer.

"Listen, Leafa… I-"

"Leafa, come on! We need to hit that dungeon soon!" the two heard Yuuki call as they noticed that she, Silica, and Asuna were standing further down the street. Before Ragna could finish what he was going to say, Leafa just gave him a small nod and ran off to join her friends.

"Oh hell…" Ragna began with a low groan as he shook his head and began following after his raid force. "This isn't going to end well…"

 _Later -Outside of the Dungeon-_

"You sure this is the place?" Klein asked as Ragna's small team of four stood at the entrance to the dungeon. The trip here had been uneventful once Ragna had caught up (he refused to comment on what he and Leafa had discussed), and there was still plenty of time to explore the dungeon in full before the raid began. Klein seemed to have cause for concern as he looked at the pillar reaching to the next level of in the distance. "...You'd think that it would be closer to the pillar."

"It's actually more that the dungeon is that damn big," Ragna said as he made a few taps and sent the team his map data. "It goes all the way to the pillar from here and there are a lot of branching paths, so we'll have a lot of ground to explore before noon."

"We shouldn't push ourselves too hard though," Sinon told him. "It wouldn't be good if we exhausted ourselves before the actual boss raid."

"Which is why we've still got over three hours," Ragna told her as he finished sending the info and closed his menu. "You guys start feeling tired just let me know and we'll head straight for the chambers."

"Hey, we got company headed our way," Agil informed as he looked behind him. "Group of girls it looks like."

"Girls?" Klein asked, seeming to pick up on that keyword. Looking behind, he caught sight of the party and seemed to get surprised. "I… Is that the _Winged Maidens Guild_?"

"Yeah, that's them. They're the ones that found this place and their leader's the one that set this whole thing up," Ragna informed his friend. "You know about them?"

"There's hardly a gamer in SAO that doesn't," Klein told him as he seemed to try and adjust his scruffy hair. "Last I heard they're a 20 member guild making them the largest one so far, they've only recently formed and they're gaining traction… _all girls_."

"So… guys are trying to get into the guild then?" Agil asked as he crossed his arms, the _Final Rebellion_ group seeming to have decided to wait for the other guild.

"Hell yeah they are!" Klein told him. "Wouldn't you want to get into a guild like that?"

"Pretty sure my wife would kill me if I tried," Agil told them with a wistful sigh.

"Wife?" Sinon asked, looking up to the large ax user. "Didn't know you were married."

"Yeah, but she's on the outside since I'm the bigger gamer between us," he informed before smirking. "Once we get out of this place I'll introduce you guys to her."

' _If I live that long,'_ Ragna thought darkly as he remembered the time limit he was on. Shoving those thoughts to the back of his head, he noticed that the _Maidens_ were close enough to start a conversation with. "Didn't know you were coming by early too."

"My team here is close to their next level up, and I'd rather they get a few before the boss right in case we need it," their leader Sakura told him, eyeing Ragna's sword which he hadn't been carrying during the meeting the day prior. "So that's the infamous _Sword-Scythe_ that managed to kill _Illfang_."

"I see you're a Scythe user yourself," Ragna noted as his head gave a small gesture to the weapon on her back. "Anyways, on my right is Agil my Tank. On the left I got Klein and Sinon, my two skirmishers."

"Good to meet all of you, I hope that you have a lot to bring to today's raid," Sakura said, before noticing something strange about Sinon; her name was lacking Ragna's guild symbol beside it. "...You're not a part of his guild?"

"No… not officially anyways," Sinon told her, giving her a rather passive answer. "I… I've just done work with Ragna's group in the past."

"I see…" Sakura said, seeming to look over the young girl rather analytically. She then shook her head. "My name's Sakura, leader of _Winged Maiden Guild_ and organizer of this raid." She then turned to the girls in her group. "Introduce yourselves ladies."

"Greetings, my name is Helena," the green haired girl in full plate said as she adjusted her glasses. "I'm going to be performing as a Tank today."

"Lilly and same," the brown haired girl in heavy chainmail told the group. "And here we've got Maval, our skirmisher."

"Hiya," said the shorter blonde, giving a greeting wave and a large smile.

"N-Nice to meet you all," Klein said with a slight stutter at talking to the girls. Ragna sighed as he gripped his forehead. "So uh… you guys want to explore the place together or…?"

"We've already seen everything there is to yesterday, so we wouldn't be 'exploring' per say. Didn't you get the map data?" Lilly reminded him, though not doing so to be rude. She gave a laugh as Klein gave a gulp at his mistake. "Don't worry, I'll be there to hold your hand through the scary parts…"

"Uh… Th-thanks, I-" Klein tried to say as the girls started heading inside the dungeon. The redhead gave a sigh as he slumped his head forward. "Damn… they must have thought I'm a total loser."

"You sure about that?" Ragna asked his friend, only for Klein to look up at him in surprise. "I mean… I can't say I'm an expert or anything, but…" Ragna scratched the side of his nose. "That… might've sounded more like flirting to me…"

"You serious?" the samurai asked the Reaper who only gave an unsure shrug, as did Agil when Klein looked to him for answers. Sinon didn't have anything to add and only stood with her arms crossed. "In that case, you guys mind if I take point today?"

"Don't get in over your head, but go right ahead," Ragna told him, throwing his co-leader a well deserved bone. As Klein headed into the dungeon to catch up with the girls.

"You know he's just going to try and show off, right?" Sinon asked him, knowing it was obvious.

"Course, I'm just wondering how motivated he gets whenever a girl shows interest in him like this," he told her.

"But what if he falls short?" she asked.

Agil gave a wistful chuckled. "I get the feeling he won't let himself."

 _Later -Inside the Dungeon-_

"Seeeyyyyaaa!" Klein shouted as he unleashed a katana skill rushing through and cutting through one of the two orcish warriors that had been charging him. Turning around, he went into a wide area of effect skill with his katana as he cut both of the orcs and finished them both off with that wide swing.

"Someone's having fun!" Lilly noted with some excitement, as Klein gave off a confident smirk as he earned points… right before noticing the Orc commander that had charge a sword skill into its Falchion right next to him. "Switch!"

Rushing forward to take Klein's place, she managed to bash the attack away with her kite shield. Using a mace skill (on the weapon that Liz did work on, mind you) she smacked the creature across the face and dealt a harsh blow to it. Rushing past her, Klein unleashed another weapon skill and finished the monster with a katana swing through its neck.

"Yeah! We're totally in sync!" Klein declared, getting new confidence as he results screen came up, showing that he'd increased in level. From a short distance away, Ragna and the others watched on.

"Damn, they're hardly leaving anything for us," the Reaper said, though he couldn't help but smirk at the sight. "Guess he's really motivated now."

"Motivated yes, but your friend's not the only one acting like they're having the time of his life," Sakura said from beside the follow guild leader as she noticed that Lilly also seemed to be enjoying herself. "Wasn't he the head of the Furinkazan guild? I heard they were one of the earliest guilds."

"He used to be, but after we cleared the first floor I had so many people I was working with that he wanted me to form my own guild," the Reaper explained. "In the end I went with it, and his guild became a part of mine."

"And thus _Final Rebellion_ was formed," Sakura concluded as another monster shattered from Lilly's mace. "Looks like I won't be seeing any of your special moves until the boss raid."

"Not with those two you won't," Ragna told her as he checked his map. "Come on, chamber's not far off."

 _Later -In Front of the Boss Door-_

' _I might not have liked what Klein was saying, but he actually might have a point,'_ Sinon thought to herself as she stood in front of the boss door with the others of the two guilds. _This does feel like the calm before the storm.'_

Everyone in the group was busy with something; Klein and Lilly were busy chatting (Klein of course making the occasional mistake and becoming a stuttering mess), Maval and Helena seemed to arguing fiercely over something trivial, and Sakura's was busy organizing her items for the boss raid. Currently Sinon was with Agil and Ragna while the axe user tried to discuss certain approaches to the boss fight. Ragna didn't say a word as he kept his arms cross and his back against the wall, only occasionally nodding or shaking his head. Sinon herself tried to pay attention to Agil's ideas, but she was having a hard time with her pre-battle nerves.

"Sorry to interrupt," came Sakura's calm and collected voice voice as she walked over to the group. Agil immediately stopped talking as he turned to face the new comer. Ragna didn't move. "Would mind terribly if I steal Sinon here for a moment?"

' _Steal?'_ Sinon thought in her mind with due suspicion.

"...You'd have to ask her," Ragna eventually answered not even bothering to open his own eyes. "She doesn't answer to me."

"I've noticed," Sakura told him before looking to Sinon. "It'll just take a few minutes."

"I guess that's fine..." Sinon said as she walked with Sakura. She was about to bring out her spear to prepare from some hunting, but to her surprise Sakura stopped once before they could exist the same zone.

"So… how is it working with _Grim Reaper_ Ragna?" Sakura asked, calling Ragna by what she considered to be his official title.

"It's fine I suppose… He's a capable fighter and carries a strong presence wherever he goes," Sinon decided to tell her. From where was standing and paying attention to Agil, he could still hear the both of them in discussion. "The members of his guild seem like decent people and he has a basic team covered."

"Sounds like he's a fair guild leader at least," the fellow guild leader noted as she looked Ragna's way. "So why aren't you a part of his guild then?"

"I… This is only supposed to be a temporary partnership," Sinon told her. "It's nothing against him, but… that was what we'd agreed upon."

"Then in that case can I offer you place with the _Winged Maidens_?" she offered Sinon. The sudden offer was enough to leave the spear user at a loss of words. "If the _Grim Reaper_ thinks that you're good enough to participate in a floor raid, that's all the reference I'd need. I think you'd be a good fit for our group."

"I'm not sure…" Sinon told her. "I… I'm not exactly what you'd call social."

"Compared to white hair and brooding over there you might as well be the life of the party," Sakura told her with a small smirk. At tick mark appeared on Ragna's forehead as he heard the insult, but he didn't do anything. "I understand your reservations and if you wanted to work alone, but _Sword Arts_ a dangerous game and you'll need to have a good team at your side if you're going to survive. With us though it's more than just a team… it's a family."

"A... family?" Sinon repeated.

"Some cases are more literal than others, take Maval and Helena over there," the guild leader said as she gestured to the two bickering. "These two might seem like they're always bickering, but they only fight because Helena's a little to protective of her sister-in-law while her wife's working to catch up in levels." She then looked to Lilly who was talking to Klein. "And Lilly's a third generation immigrant from Italy who used to be very different back when I first met her. When I first met her on launch day, she was actually masquerading as a man because she'd always be a stuttering mess when she was talking to any guy, especially if said guy was hitting on her." Sakura smiled. "A few weeks with us and she managed to overcome her shyness little by little."

' _Which might explain why she's taken a liking to Klein at the moment,'_ Sinon thought to herself as she watched Lilly laugh while it looked like Klein was embarrassed at something he'd said. ' _He was in the same shoes as she used to be.'_

"What I'm telling you is that if you joined our group you'd be taken care of. Maybe you'd even find a few people that you could call friends," she offered before realizing her position. "Unless… you were hoping to join Ragna's guild of course."

"I…" Sinon tried to come up with an answer. True working with Ragna and his guild wasn't unbearable, but the Reaper had never said anything about wanting her to join. As far as she could tell, he hadn't even hinted that it was something he'd want. "I'm afraid I just don't know."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to give you something else to worry about, and on today of all days," Sakura apologized before putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "You don't have to give me an answer now, just let me know after you've given it some thought."

"…I can do that much," Sinon promised as she headed back to to her team. It seemed like Agil had held off on going over the ideas for while she was talking to Sakura, only standing and waiting with the Reaper.

"So… what'd she have to say?" the Ax asked her once she'd returned.

"She… wants to join the _Winged Maidens_ after the boss raid," Sinon told him awkwadly, not carrying any of the confidence that Ragna had given her or her own normally passive nature.

"That… right?" Agil asked again, before trying to put on his best smile. "I mean… damn, that's awesome. They're the biggest guild around right now, so it's a great chance for you."

"Yeah, great," Sinon repeated, before looking at Ragna who had his arms crossed as he slouched against the wall. If Sinon hadn't known any better, she might've guessed that he was sleeping. "Do you think I should go for it?"

"In the end it's up to you," Ragna told her without hesitation. ' _As long as she gets into a good guild, she'll be safe and this way I won't be making the choice for her.'_ "...It's not a bad move though."

"Right," Sinon said in response, almost sounding a little disappointed. Agil was feeling a _touch_ uncomfortable as he watched them. Thankfully though, it seemed like a distraction had just shown itself.

"Hey, is that one of the other groups?" he asked, forcing Ragna to finally open his eyes as he looked at the new group.

"Yep, that's Diable's group right there," Ragna told him noticing that Diabel was heading over to the three of them along with another of teammates, one that Ragna recognized.

"Agil, good to see you again," Diabel said as the two shook hands. "I haven't seen you since the first floor."

"Yeah, and I was tank then too," he told the blue haired player. "Some things just don't change."

"Well you were one of the best tanks during that raid, you're an obvious choice for the role," Diabel said before looking to Sinon. "Sorry, have we met?"

"No, I'm just a player who's working with Ragna for the time being," Sinon told him, keeping her words as neutral as she could. ' _For the time being.'_ "I'm Sinon; I'm on the _Skirmisher_ unit today."

"Nice to meet you then," Diabel told her before gesturing to the player next to him. "This is Vance; he's the guy that managed to clear the last floor with a team of ten."

"Good to meet both of you," Vance told Sinon and Agil before looking at Ragna. "...Heard you were coming, nice that you quit your solo playing long enough to help where you're needed."

"Could say the same about you," Ragna told him reclusively. "You're not on DPS duty though?"

"Nah, I'm supposed to go as a skirmisher today; apparently another team took up every DPS spot they could and then some," the scimitar user shook his head. "Anyways take care of yourselves in there; last floor dungeon was easy, but we still had a couple of close calls."

"Stay safe yourself I guess," Ragna said as Vance gave him a small smirk. As he and Diabel walked away, Ragna looked to Sinon. "Met him shortly after Floor Two was cleared, he's good in fight and he doesn't seem like a total ass, so you can trust him to do his job when you're in there."

"And Diabel's a good Tank, so I'll have some decent support on my end," Agil said with some relief before turning to Ragna. "That just leaves you and Sakura with whoever else manage that DPS role."

"Don't remind me…" the Reaper said tilting his head further downwards as he seemed annoyed by the facts.

"You don't seem to be a fan of the group you've been assigned to," Sinon noted. Ragna didn't comment on the observation. "Who are you working with anyways?"

"...Take a look behind you; asshole brigade just showed up," he instructed without even opening his eyes.

Turning to look behind them as Ragna had instructed, Sinon's eyes went wide with surprise before going tight with a glare. Kibaou and his group made their way forward into the chambers with the other teams. Not only was Kibaou a part of this, but the group he'd brought along was the exact same one that had been giving her trouble when she and Ragna had first met, meaning…

"Don't tell me," Ragna began as he'd opened his eyes long enough to see Diabel making his way forward to talk to the team leader. "Good lord, he had to do this today."

"Do what?" Sinon asked as she saw Diabel walking forward to confront the fourth leader.

"What are you doing?" he asked Kibaou directly. "You said that you were bringing five members to the boss raid, not six."

"I had trouble deciding who I wanted to leave behind, so in the end I decided it'd be better just to bring everyone," Kibaou explained. "And another _DPS_ member means that the boss is going to fall that much quicker."

"Another _DPS_ member?" Diabel asked as he grit his teeth. "We already let you bring in five and that's being generous, why are you-?"

"Because I'm looking out for the raid force and I don't want to leave this to chance," Kibaou said speaking up as he wanted to make sure everyone heard this. "One or two extra people are just going to make beating back whatever's on the other side of the boss door that much easier."

"Don't give us that! We all know what you're trying to do!" Diabel shouted at him. "I can't believe that you'd do something this underhanded after all of the hate you giving to the Beta players back on Floor One! You were yelling at them for trying to get an early advantage, but really all you want is to be at the top of the game yourself!"

Kibaou was silent for a long moment, not saying a word to Diabel or even looking at the others in the room. You could hear a pin drop in the room. Eventually, he looked to the rest of his team who only shot their boss smug grins… before he himself shot one at Diabel.

"Funny that _you're_ bringing that up," he said straight to Diabel's face, something made the blue haired knight balk. "Back on the Floor One, who was the idiot who charged out into the open and attacked the boss while its health was down just so he could get the last drop that he's wearing right now?"

"Diabel?" Sakura asked to the other team lead. Diabel was having a hard time speaking or finding his voice.

"I… I… I know what I did…" he finally managed to say. "I'm not proud of it… I nearly all of us killed, and I might have if it wasn't Ragna back there." The Reaper tried to ignore all of the sets of eyes that were momentarily focused on him. "But that's why I'm still wearing this coat he gave me… he gave me a second chance after that stupid mistake, and I know that I can't risk everyone's lives on some petty last attack bonus." His glare at Kibaou was scathing. "The real question is if you know that."

"...Why do you think I'm bringing in a sixth member?" Kibaou argued back, not letting Diabel have the final word. He turned to Sakura with a scoff. "Whenever you decide to do this thing, my team and I are ready." Not giving a chance for any protest, his team walked off to the far side of the room.

"And people are actually following him?" Sinon asked with a scowl on her face. "How could Sakura even agree to work with someone like that?"

"Hey, you worked with him for a mission didn't you?" Ragna answered in return. "When I heard he was on the team I thought I'd try to the reasonable one for once… goes to show what good that will do."

"...Make sure he doesn't get that last attack bonus he's after," Sinon said surprising the Reaper with her vendetta. "Even if you have to show off more than you'd wanted to… he doesn't deserve it with what he's trying."

"...You know, I kinda like this side of you," Ragna admitted with a small smirk.

"What was that?" Sinon asked with a small blush on her face at Ragna's confession.

"Nothing, let's just focus on being ready for the job ahead. You worry about going as a support, I'll worry about focusing on the boss and making sure that asshole doesn't pull anything."

"Works for me," Sinon told him.

About fifteen minutes later, Heathcliff arrived with his promised team of three. Next to him was a man who stood at about his height and carried a deathly serious face. He had dark hair that was parted in the middle so it wouldn't get in the way of his eyes. His face was narrow with features so sharp it almost looked sickly. He was equipped in navy blue heavy armor and a single handed sword, but lacked a shield. It made some sense as Heathcliff had promised he would be providing two skirmishers. The name atop him clearly read Kuradeel.

The other member that Heathcliff brought was a woman who too stood at tall at close to his height. This woman gave of much more of a skirmisher vibe with her lighter leather armor which seemed to be a touch… tight on her features. She carried a lance on her back, its point topped with vicious looking barbs. Her crimson hair covered one of her eyes, but the part of her face Ragna could see had an expression that looked confident and… something else. The name above her read Rosalia.

"Looks we're finally ready to get started," Ragna said as he finally got off of the wall before looking to Agil and Sinon. "Be safe as you can out there… I'm counting on you."

"We'll all do our jobs and get through this," Agil promised his leader. Ragna gave a single strong nod in return. "Should I say anything to Klein?"

"Nothing that he wouldn't already know," the Reaper humorlessly shot back as he headed for the boss door along with the other leaders. Taking his small medallion out of his inventory he placed it into the door's indent, causing the connected lightning bolt to glow a powerful yellow.

"Here we go again…" Diabel sighed, mostly to himself as he placed the third medallion in its place and caused yet another bolt to glow.

Kibaou said nothing as he walked up to the doorway and placed his medallion in the doorway. Ragna had half expected he'd place his last so that he could use what little leverage he still had to get his way… but apparently Kibaou knew that he was already pressing hs chance on getting his reward.

Heathcliff was just as silent as he stepped forward and placed a medallion in the last opening. As final bolt became illuminated with energy the entire room seem to shake as the whole door seemed to glow with energy. Everyone in the room took a cautious step back and readied their weaponry as the glow increased to a blinding intensity. The shaking persisted another few excruciating seconds before it finally stopped. When the light subsided, the door was gone leaving an opened entrance to the dark boss room.

"Everyone divide into your teams and move forward!" Sakura directed. "Today is the day we finally clear the Third floor!" The group gave a loud cheer as the rushed into the Boss chamber, the room lighting itself as the entered and revealing the boss within.

In the center of the room was a large collection of wispy black rags which formed a menacing midnight cloak. As the the player approached it the collection sprang to life rising hauntingly to its feet. Beneath the long cloak the raid force could see the burlap limbs of a scarecrow and a leathery faceless head beneath the cloak hood. Standing up at full height, the limber creature stood at nearly 30 feet tall.

"So we've got to fight against some giant ragdoll?" Vance asked before he heard the crackle of lightning forming from overhead. "Oh, that can't be good."

Splitting though the ceiling and striking with deadly force, an enormous lightning bolt struck the scarecrow and sent it's power throughout its entire form. Electrified eyes and a slim mouth appeared on the scarecrows face as its form flickered with light closing it's hands and placing them together, a scythe formed from the electric energy with a deadly curved edge at the top. The electricity forming its mouth expanded as it less loose a shrill scream that shook its boss chambers as its four health bars and name were revealed.

 _ **DRALAX THE STORM REAPER**_

(Cue _**Super Smash Bros. Ultimate**_ _Divine Bloodlines_ Extended)

' _...Is the damn boss trying to make this personal?'_ Ragna thought to himself with slight annoyance.

"Tank line forward!" Sakura commanded taking charge of the operation. "I want everyone here to study its moveset and see how hard it hits. Be ready to heal yourselves once I send the Attack force in!"

It was then that the massive Scarecrow waved its hand and brought down ten lightning bolts around the arena. The Tank force braced themselves, thinking that the boss was readying a powerful attack with the bolts. Instead where each lightning bolt struck a minion spawned into the room. These were cloaked scarecrows like the boss, save for the fact that these stood at only six feet tall and instead of a scythe they each had long nail-like claws. The text above them read _Nightmare Watchers._

"Skirmisher team! Keep those minions off of us! Destroy then as quickly as you can and keep them from interfering!"

"On it!" Sinon agreed as she ran at the scarecrow closest to her as she charged a skill into her spear. Once the attack was ready, she unleashed the move and let it carry her forward as she impaled the monster through. Since this was a floor boss minion, the monster didn't go down right then and there and attempted to perform a counter on her. Bringing her spear around she managed to knock the creature off balance with the blunt end of her weapon and interrupted the attack, Moving forward with another strike she managed to catch the scarecrow in the head and caused it to shatter.

Klein had admittedly been a little disappointed when he'd heard that he wouldn't be teamed up with Lilly during the boss raid (Ragna was a admittedly a little surprised that he hadn't been begging Agil for a position change), but he'd be damned if he wasn't going to give this boss raid his all. He too made a charging slash at the scarecrow and made a deep cut across its chest. When the monster tried to retaliate with the it's claw Klein stepped back to avoid them. The monster's attack hadn't finished there and Klein parried the monster's two follow swipes from each claw before cutting the monster in half with a powerful swing.

From Heathcliff's team, the sword user Kuradeel found himself facing down two of the the scarecrows at once. While he normally wasn't the type to rely on brute force, he did have the heaviest armor out of anyone in the _Skirmisher_ force. Changing up an area of effect sword skill, he take a hit from each of the scarecrows that barely affected his health before unleashing the move and sending both of them into the red. He gave a smirk as he moved to finish his opponents… only to have both of the scarecrows impaled through their chests by Rosalia's lance. She gave him an amused smirk as she stole his kills, causing Kuradeel to scowl.

"Skirmisher force stay on them!" Sakura commanded as Vance cleaved through another of the scarecrows with his single handed scimitar. "Tank force back off for now! DPS force watch for the scythe skills when it brings it to the side it's an _AOE_ , when it brings it up-!"

Sakura's words fell on deaf ears as Kibaou's entire force rushed forward through the Tank team, already charging their weapon skills as _Dralax_ missed one of the retreating tanks with its scythe swing. There was a flash of different colors along as Kibaou's group unleashed their attacks and did considerable damage to the monster. Gritting her teeth as she was being ignored during a vital part in their strategy. Deciding she'd have a few select words for Kibaou after the fight she tried to move forward to capitalize on the full guild assault. She couldn't there was just no possible way she could attack from the front with all of Kibaou's members taking up room with all of their large two handed weapons. She nearly got cut by an axe blade as a member of Kibaou's team brought the weapon back. Gritting her teeth, she instead started running for the side of the monster to try and get a place where she could attack it without interference. As she moved, she saw the monster charging an AOE sword skill and Kibaou's team didn't seem to have a care in the world.

"ALL OF YOU GET BACK!" she shouted, but to no avail as they continued to mercilessly swarm the boss, making all of them easy targets. She saw the scythe swing through the air, assuming the worst as-

 _ **CLANG!**_

From out of seemingly nowhere, Ragna burst through the line of attacks and deflected the scythe swing with a single handed swing from his sword. His counter attack was enough to send the opposing _Reaper_ off balance. Shifting into a _Blast_ skill he-

"OUT OF OUR WAY YOU IDIOT!" shouted one of the girls as Kibaou's group charged forward getting in the way and forcing the Reaper to cancel his skill before he cut one of Kibaou's members to shreds. Gritting his teeth, he ran around the group to the monster's back, cost him time to try and get a decent vantage point.

"And people were telling me you were the one that would never listen!" Sakura shouted as she finally managed to score a strike on the monster's back. Ragna didn't say anything, only swinging his sword against the monster's back and scoring a hit. On the other side Kibaou's group was taking damage from some of the boss's regular attacks. No one was at a severe risk yet, but it did seem like the best time for Tank force to take over. "Tank force! Get ready for-!"

"Everybody get back and heal!" Kibaou shouted at his group who retreated all at once barely giving the Tanks time to get into position. Diabel would have been struck by _Dralax's_ wicked scythe had Heathcliff not intercepted and blocked the attack with his shield in a perfect parry. Shaking her head at Kibaou's attitude, Sakura followed the retreat with Ragna following closely behind to give her cover.

"What do you think you're doing!?" Sakura yelled at Kibaou while Heathcliff and the rest of the tank force fended off the _Storm_ _Reaper's_ assault, Agil deflecting an _AOE_ swing much the same way he'd seen Ragna do.

"I'm getting us results!" Kibaou yelled as he pointed at the monster. "Look at that thing; we've already got it below half health! Either you try and attack that boss where you can or you stay out of our way and let us do our damn job!"

' _Honestly,'_ Sinon thought to herself as Maval, the Skirmisher from the _Winged Maidens_ , slew the final boss minion. "What if we just go for a final assault on the boss itself? The DPS, tanks, and skirmishers can all go for the last attack bonus and-"

"Not a chance! I'm not risking this raid on you and your freezing!" Kibaou yelled making it clear that he remembered Sinon and their prior team up. "Everyone stays on their jobs and we finish this thing the next turn, got that?"

"...He's right," Sakura finally decided, keeping her eyes on the Tank force as the DPS force healed. "I don't like it, but he's right… I'll call your group if we need you, but stay where you are."

' _This is bullshit,'_ Ragna thought to himself, keeping his power contained as he pretended to take a health potion. ' _I thought I'd try to see if the players were ready for floor bosses, but all I'm seeing is group of asses trying to hog all of the rewards.'_ He sighed to himself. ' _But if I clear this thing here on my own, that's just going to cause problems…'_ He glared at Kibaou. ' _If he gets that last attack bonus, I hope it's a piece of shit.'_

"Tank force return!" Sakura shouted as the Tank force began a hasty retreat. She turned to Ragna who only gave her a nod to let her know he was ready. " _DPS_ force… BRING IT DOWN!"

"FORWARD!" Kibaou shouted as his team made their way straight for the boss. Learning from their previous mistakes, Sakura and Ragna made their way to the boss's flank, taking more time to get into position but at least finding an opening to deal damage. The repeated use of sword skills brought the monster's HP down fast…

...and then it hit half of its final life bar.

Unleashing a demented scream, a powerful shockwave blasted from all around Dralax, smashing into all of the players. It didn't deal any damage, but it interrupted all of their attacks and forced the players back. A complete storm of lightning struck around the boss room, each one revealing yet another of boss minion.

"It had a final phase..." Sakura muttered as she forced her way back to her feet.

"Don't let it fool you, we've can still put this thing in the ground," Ragna told her as he was one of the few that had managed to stay on his own feet. "Just give the orders, we'll follow this through."

"...Right," Sakura agreed. "Skirmisher force! Keep those minions off of us! Slay them if you have the chance, but you can't let a single one get through to either teams!"

"Easier said than done!" Vance shouted as he managed to cut one of the creatures down, only to have to avoid the rapid strike from some of the other monsters. Stabbing one of them through the head, he kept his blade impaled as he watched the monsters HP fall, only for its body to be encompassed in lightning. Wisely stepping back as the it started to glow, the monster exploded in a vicious blast of sparks just barely missing the skirmisher. "Careful! These things self-destruct now!"

"I see 'em!" Agil shouted as he went to stop one of the minions from going for the members of his group that was still healing. His axe skill managed to hit one of the creature and sent it sprawling back… right before the one he hadn't noticed exploded on him point blank.

" _ **AGIL!"**_ Ragna shouted from the far end of the dungeon. The axe user was still alive, but that attack had sent his Health dangerously low; another hit like that and he'd be dead. The minion he'd blasted away was running back, already glowing with sparks to self destruct and take his friend with it. Knowing he'd have to move fast, the Reaper readied himself to rush to the other room to save his friend… but he didn't even get to take off.

"I GOT YA!" Klein shouted as he rushed forward slashing his katana thought the scarecrow and destroying it before it could explode. Another of the monsters rushed at him and Klein impaled it with his sword on reflex. The monster readied itself to explode and Klein was trapped; if he ran now Agil would still be caught in the explosion and Klein didn't have the axe users armor. Yelling at the top of his lungs, he raised his sword and cut through the scarecrow just before it exploded, destroying it at the last instant. Yet another scarecrow went for him, but Klein deflected its attack and sent the monster off balance. Slashing the creature he managed to force it to start to explode before shoulder charging it as hard as he could pushing it far out of the way and causing it to explode harmlessly. More scarecrows were starting to surround him, but with Vance running to his side, Agil forcing his way to his feet, and the tank team coming as support he felt pretty covered.

' _That was too close,'_ Sakura thought as she started to lead Ragna to the regular force. "EVERYONE REGROUP! FOCUS ON THE MINIONS!"

"FORGET THAT! WE CAN TAKE THIS THING NOW!" Kibal shouted as they ran past his group. "JUST HIT IT BEFORE IT TRIES ANYTHING ELSE!"

Kibaou's group screamed as one as the went into a freeny, making attack after attack on the _Storm Reaper_. The floor boss didn't make another attack, seeming the surge with lightning as it powered up… before transitioning to readying a swing at speeds that were too fast to see It had picked Kibaou as its target and swung the deadly sickle down on the usperper and instigator.

" _ **GAH!"**_

Maybe she didn't want want to be known as the first raid leader who'd lost someone, maybe that even with as big of an ass Kibaou had been she knew he still had dedication to clearing the game, maybe she just couldn't sit back and watch someone die… not a single of the these thought had gone through her mind as Sakura and her scythe took the _Storm Reaper's_ blade, sending her flying through the air.

If the game had regular pain sensory, Sakura might've been sent into shock as her back painfully slammed into the far wall causing her to lose her grip on her scythe and fall to the ground. The five minions around her took quick interest and started moving towards the immobilized leader. Her only form of protection was Sinon walking between the two of them, ready to stand her ground with her spear.

"G… get away," Sakura begged, trying and failing to force her way to her feet. "They'll kill you…"

Sinon didn't say anything in return, staring down the four monsters that were threateningly approaching the two of them. The closest scarecrow had enough waiting and charged forward at Sinon not even guarding itself as her speared embedded itself deep inside its burlap body. The monster began to spark with a threatening explosion, but she didn't even flinch as she held her ground. To Sakura it looked suicidal, standing there keeping the glowing scarecrow at bay… only for the massive blade of _Aramasa_ to suddenly cleave the monster in half finishing it off.

' _Wh-what?'_ Sakura thought to herself. ' _Where did he-?'_

Turning around Ragna made a deep cut into another of the scarecrows and dealt enough damage to send into its self destructive state. He then moved to the side, just in time for Sinon to lunge past him with her lance skill and finish off the creature. Two seperate scarecrows went on opposing sides. Ragna and Sinon stabbed both of their weapons forward and caught both of the creatures before turning with a powerful swing and striking the scarecrow the other had just a second ago, destroying the both of them. The final scarecrow didn't even have a chance to go into its suicidal mode as the Grim Reaper and the spearwoman cleaved through it in unison, destroying the final monster.

Meanwhile, Sakura's selfless act hadn't slowed Kibaou advances in the slightest as his group kept attacking the floor boss with everything they had. It was working as the creatures health dropped even further.

"Just one more hit!" Kibaou shouted as he rushed forward with his greatsword and his group followed in support. 'YOU'RE MINE!"

 _ **CRASH!**_

 _Dralax the Storm Reaper_ had unleashed the AOE slash that Sakura had tried to warn them about in the beginning, sending everyone in Kibaou's guild into the red and off of their feet. The entirely of his group hit the ground with a painful thud. Kibaou felt his head spin as he lay prone on the ground, unable to do anything as the _Storm Reaper_ raised its scythe to finish off its first victim.

 _ **SHING!**_

...That was when a bright flash of light soared past the downed group and struck _Dralax_ with deadly precision. And there was Heathcliff, his face as hard and emotionless as stone, holding his sword steady and keeping it impaled in the Floor Boss. A light hissing sound was heard from the boss as it held tightly to its scythe… before finally exploding into fragments of light.

(End theme)

"Ugh… What… happened…?" Kibaou asked in a total daze as he pick himself from off the ground. As he tried to do so, Heathcliff passed him by on his way to the next floor. The victor of that floor and the winner of the last attack bonus didn't say a word… but the look of disapproval he cast down on Kibaou was scarring. The rest of the attack force gave a long breath of relief as the boss was finally beaten down as the congratulatory screen came up.

"Huh, turns out it was one of the guys from the Tank force that got the item," Klein noted as he made his way over to Ragna and Sinon with Agil. "That must sting, eh?"

"Not to me; I'm just happy that everyone managed to survive the encounter… the fact that Kibaou's team didn't get the bonus they were after is just more of a good thing," Sinon told him as she put her spear on her back before turning to the remaining Reaper. "Unless you wanted it?"

"Nah, it's gonna take more than a _Floor Drop_ for me to give up this coat and sword," Ragna told her as he stood, resting the cracked _Aramasa_ on his shoulder before looking at Agil. "You okay?"

"Thanks to Klein, yeah…" the axe user said before looking at the redhead. "Would've sucked if you had to go and bite it there, just after a chick finally seemed interested in you."

"You would've done the same for any of us," Klein told him with a shrug.

"So you weren't just trying to show off for Lilly then?" Ragna asked the katana user.

"Are you kidding me? I might need all of the help I can get, but no chick's worth going through that kind of terror on purpose."

"Aw, not even for me?" Lilly teasingly asked from behind Klein. The katana user stiffed as he realized that his best chance at girlfriend had heard his last complaint. "Just kidding! You _were_ looking pretty cool out there after all."

"I-I… I was?" Klein asked in a nervous sputter. Not saying a single word, Ragna delivered a harsh elbow to his friend's ribcage, telling him to _stop being so damn awkward_. "I mean I was! …well not intentionally if I'm being honest."

"Aw stop it, your face is matching your hair," Lilly told him, letting the Samurai know he was blushing. Figuring that they should give the two of them some room, Ragna and Agil began making their way for the Fourth floor at long last.

Sinon was about to follow them, but noticed that Sakura was still on the floor, catching her breath after that last close call had nearly ended it for her. Maval and Helena had of course checked on their leader by now, but she had insisted that she'd only need need a moment to rest and they should go on ahead without her for now.

"That was a pretty nasty hit you took," Sinon advised as she made her way over to the Raid Leader.

"If my scythe hadn't taken most of the attack, that would have been it for me," she told the skirmisher as from where she sat cross legged on the ground, keeping a single hand delicately placed on her weapon of choice. "That said, I think it's going to need some serious repairs or that's it for this weapon."

"If there's a not a Blacksmith in your guild, then I have someone I can recommend to you," Sinon told her. "She's done good work on my spear before."

"I might have some idea about who you're talking about," Sakura said in return before staying silent for a moment. "Listen, about the offer I made to bring you into our guild…"

"I'm still up for it if that's what your worried about," Sinon said readily, surprising Sakura. "You only went down because you had to step in and save another player… I can't blame you for that."

"It's nice of you to say that… but I don't think I'd be doing the right thing if I had you join us," Sakura said with a touch of sadness. "Not when you already have a group that you work so well with."

"...You're saying that I should stay with Ragna's team," Sinon noted, not as a question. "Do you really think I'm better with him?"

"It's not difficult to see that you're effective fighting at each other's side," the guild leader told her. "When you both moved to save me there was an… _understanding_ between your attacks. You both moved with such precision between each other's actions that you didn't have to say a word and you both knew what you needed to do." Sakura sighed. "I've never seen teamwork like that in the game, even between my girls."

"That's just how we've always been fighting," Sinon told her, a sudden realization starting to dawn on her.

"And he's never said anything about it?" Sakura asked as she used her scythe's handle to finally make her way to her feet. "I'm not going to say you've no choice but to join up with him, and my doors are still open to you… but I'd think it over a little more." She smirked as she saw Ragna's back heading up for the next floor. "After all, you've got a good friend there."

"...I guess I do."

 _Meanwhile -Floor Four-_

"From a floor of Wheat Fields to a floor Ruins, this doesn't seem like much fun," Rosalia said with a sigh as she took a look at the town gates towards the open fields covered by parts of ruins buried in the earth. "Hopefully this one has a little something extra to offer, I was almost bored to death by that last one."

"That cocky mouth is going to get you killed one of these days," Kuradeel told her with a strong scowl. "I'm just hoping it doesn't affect me as well."

"Charmless as usual," the spearwoman said with a sigh at her companion. "Makes me wonder why I have to stick my neck out for you all of the time."

"Excuse you?" Kuradeel irately demanded. "With all of your time spent teasing men it's a wonder that we can get anything done in this team. If it wasn't for Heathcliff-"

"And there you go talking about your man crush again," she said with yet another sigh as she waved off the stuttering gasps she'd caused in her 'partner'. "It's always got to be about Heathcliff _senpai_ with you, doesn't it?"

"You little-! I-!"

"Let's leave it there both of you," Heathcliff told them both calmly. Immediately, the two of them stopped their arguing to listen to their leader. "This floor might be even larger than the last one."

"And the ruins might mean that we'll to solve some puzzles to get to the end of it," Kuradeel agreed. "This might be a challenge."

"Not if the six medallions our dear leader still has from the last floor has anything to say about it," Rosalia slyly added. "I just have to wonder, why did you never bring that up with the other guilds?"

"Would there have been a point to it?" Kuradeel again spoke against her. "We didn't know where or how they were to be used, so why bother?"

"Might've given us a little more status from that fight we were just a part of," Rosalia advised. "Even if we were the ones that finally managed to bring that thing down, every little bit of influence helps especially on these lower floors."

"...You may have a point," Kuradeel reluctantly agreed before turning to his leader. "So do we have anything left for today?"

"Yes, I want to explore the field area around the cities before we rest and while we still have a few hours of daylight left to use," Heathcliff instructed. "With any luck we might even find a few quests to come back to tomorrow."

"And after all of that trouble that we had to go through today to just to get to this damn floor," Rosalia groaned. "You really _can_ be merciless sometimes…"

"Oh… but I can also be very giving," Heathcliff told her with something of a knowing smile. "In fact if you agree to continue on without complaint, I'll even give you the last attack bonus from the last floor."

"Seriously? You've got yourself a deal then," Rosalia said excitedly. Kuradeel could only groan at her unearned (in his mind) reward as Heathcliff sent the item in question over. Rosalia could only giggle with anticipation as she equipped the gift, switching her current weapon out for a… Rosalia's face fell. "A pitchfork."

"Be sure to put it to good use would you, it's even a lance type weapon," Heathcliff told her passively while Kuradeel sneered at her reward. Rosalia didn't say a word to either of them as she switched back to her regular weapon, making a silent note to sell that piece the next chance she got.

 _Later that night -Back down on Floor Three-_

"Some celebration party," Leafa said with as she sat with her guild. "Kibaou's group refused us outright and we couldn't even find Heathcliff's party to give him the invitation."

"I agree it's a shame that Heathcliff couldn't show, but don't worry too much that Kibaou's party didn't join us," Agil said as he stood near the blonde with a tankard full of wine. "That ass was trying to cause trouble before the raid and with his spectacular fail during it, he won't be showing his face around us if he knows what's good for him…" The axe user gave a short chuckle. "Or are you just mad that Ragna and Sinon are skipping out on us?"

"Forget those two; I want to know what's up with Klein and that girl!" Liz said as she stared across the room where Klein and Lilly were sitting at a small table enjoying dinner. Even if Klein was still awkward as he'd been that morning, the two seemed to be engaging in good banter.

"From what I've learned talking with the others, apparently that girl likes guys that have a bit of an awkward side to them," Yuuki said as she too tilted he head at the display. "Which I guess makes sense why she went with Klein."

"And why he's got his entire old guild peaking around the corner," Asuna added with a short sigh as the rest of the _Fuurin Kazan_ guild was indeed peaking around the corner to look at their boss on his 'date.'

"Seems like everyone's havin' a good time at least," Argo said as she looked around the small room. Looking a bit further away, she saw that Silica was standing with Pina on her shoulder as several players went in to get a look at the cute Fairy Dragon… and possibly her just as cute tamer.

Three of the five guilds had arrived bringing most of their members. All three of the guilds had chipped in to buy a banquet of food and drinks to celebrate their victory and they'd even hired a few performing NPC's to handle the musical selection for the night. Even if it was a joyous occasion, no one had taken to dancing yet.

The sudden sound of a door opening caused the group to turn (they were closest to the entrance) just in time to Ragna and Sinon head into the gathering.

"Sorry we're late," Ragna said apologetically as he let out a small yawn. "Had something big to take care of first."

"You better be sorry," Leafa told him with her hands on her hips. "Do you have any idea how long we've been-! ...Waiting… for…" The blonde was having trouble finishing her words as she noticed the Sinon's name showing next to Ragna's… now carrying the official sigil of the _**Final Rebellion**_ guild right next to it. "S-Sinon…?"

"...The way Ragna's been telling me, you've been trying to convince me to me to join for a while." Leafa had to fight to keep her blush down as she wondered just how much Ragna had told her. "But yeah, as long as no one else has a problem with it I'll be working with your guild as a full member from now on."

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Agil told her with a relieved smirk. "Welcome aboard Sinon." Sinon, Agil, and the other girls all gave smiles to commemorate their newest member… a gesture that was cut short by a small growl from a certain Reaper's stomach.

"Think I'll hit the banquet," Ragna told them as he headed over to the food, keeping his head down so that no one would notice him (difficult to do with a head of spiky white hair). He did shoot a small nod to Klein and Diabel when he passed them by, but otherwise proceeded to the refreshments unhindered. Poking at a cut of pork with his fork, he brought it up to his mouth and hoped for the best. It was decent, but lacked any of the necessary spices it would take to actually enjoy it. "Better than usual I guess… not saying much though."

"Hey." Ragna didn't need to turn or identify the voice to know that it was Leafa who had come up to talk to him. "So… I guess you got Sinon to join."

"Not really… she came to me about it," he admitted as he took a look at the appetizers that were being offered; there wasn't much that piqued his interest. "...Can't say I'm not a little happy that she joined us."

"I'm honestly relieved, but you already knew that," Leafa told him with a small smile, still not going for the food.

"Well you made it too obvious," Ragna said as he gave up on the meat and instead went for the wine. While the Grim Reaper was far from a heavy drinker, he at least felt that with a less stingy level of acceptance he could appreciate the drinks in the game a little better. Taking up a tankard of wine, he began downing its contents with due reservation.

"S-so…" Leafa began with a blush, not looking Ragna in the eye as she held one of her arms with the other. "A… About that date…" Ragna spewed what he'd sipped into his wine back into his tankard, giving a harsh cough at the suddenness of Leafa's reminder. "We… we agreed to that before you left today."

"No, you said that was a deal and you ran off before I could say otherwise," Ragna told her as he grabbed a napkin from the table to wipe the spilt wine off his face. "I didn't do anything special in the first place; Sinon joined because she wanted to, not because I did something to convince her for a quick date."

"O-oh…" Leafa said in return.

"Honestly, going out like this…" Ragna muttered to himself as he crossed his arms and closed his eyes with an internal groan. When Leafa didn't say anything he opened one of his eyes to get a look at the younger blonde. While she tried to act normal as she looked towards the banquet of food, it was fair to see that she was feeling really awkward about something. Figuring he'd taken his usual crass commentary too far this time, the Reaper gave a sigh. "You know… it's kind of a shame that the band's playing this well and no one's up dancing."

"Eh?" Leafa asked before turning to the Reaper and noticed that he was putting an arm out to offer it be hooked with hers. "What are you doing?"

"I'm asking you to dance with me," he told her before giving Leafa the smallest of smirks as he sent _Aramasa_ into storage so it wouldn't get in the way. "One song together and we'll call this whole mess even. Deal?"

"...Deal," Leafa said as she hooked her arm with Ragna's. "I caught sight of you dancing with Yuuki on the first floor before we left. Hopefully your moves have improved since then."

"Yeah," Ragna said with a slightly nervous tone as he looked around at the people who he was quickly getting attention from as he lead the attractive young maiden out onto the center of the room. He tried to move the idea of being watched while he danced to the back of his head as he placed his hand on Leafa's hip, adjusting his stance to try to compensate for his taller height. "...I hope so too."

The band began to pick up the tempo in their performance and now that there was a couple that was actually looking to dance it even seemed like they were playing a little louder. Trying to remember what little he'd learned from his trial-by-fire experience on the first floor. Starting off with smaller movements, he guided the young across the dance floor careful to keep the movements slow enough to where Leafa could guess what he was about to do. Going into a spin, he made sure to keep his movement fluent and didn't attempt to dip his partner just yet. Guiding her across the floor again, he gave Leafa enough room and gave her enough room to twirl under his arm. He noticed the crowd looking his way and could hear the snickers he was getting (the ones from Argo were especially easy to pick out), but he paid it no mind as he continued to move.

It turned out that no one had joined into the dance during that song, leaving the two plenty of room to work with for the outing. Despite slightly awkward starts, people were surprised at how quickly Ragna had gained a confident understanding of the basics, even shifting to some of the more advanced moves as he guided Leafa along in their dance. When it sounded like the song was about to end, Ragna finally decided to take a risk with a dip sending Leafa back as he kept a careful hold on her and he leaned forward, Leafa gave a startled jolt as she realized just how close the two's faces were. Keeping his composure and focus, Ragna brought her back up just as the last notes had finished playing. Recovering as quickly as she could, Leafa returned Ragna's bow.

"Not bad," Agil commented from the sides with a small smirk. A few people were actually clapping for the two that they'd been watching, leaving Ragna just the least bit confident that he hadn't made a total fool out of himself.

"So we good now?" Ragna asked with a smirk.

"...I'd say we are," Leafa said with a charming grin.

There was a small cough from the two interrupting the moment as they saw Argo standing proudly next to both of them clearly waiting for the next dance.

"...Only if you close my damn tab," the Reaper mutters as he took Argo's hand for his second dance with her in the game.

"No such luck," Argo teased as Leafa cautiously backed away. Ragna considered declining her offer then and there out of spite, but as the music began up again he realized that he didn't have much of a choice.

Ragna still found that he remained the only one out on the dance floor so he'd still have some room to work with as he danced with Argo. Much like before he started off in his dance moves… but quite early in he decided his _Info Broker_ had done enough to where she warranted being messed with a little. Quickly going from a small twirl into a sudden dip, he expected her to lose balance and he'd have to catch her… the problem was Argo's very analytical personality as she fell back into the lean easily.

"Careful, gettin' kind of close there," she whispered in his ear leaving a tick mark to appear on the Reaper's forehead. Bringing her back up he finished the dance without trying anything else. During their bow, she smirked. "You're gettin' better."

"I'd hope so, never hear the end of it otherwise," he told her with a reluctant sigh as he rose to from his bow, only to receive a sudden hug from the young info broker. "The hell are you-!?"

"Hee, you still get embarrassed easily though," she chuckled. Ragna didn't say much as he awkwardly returned the hug, trying to ignore all of the staring he was getting from around the room. "Thanks for dancing though."

"Even if you can be a total pain in the ass, I guess you're welcome," Ragna told her with a mixed insult that left Argo to make a face at him. Before the next song started it seemed like a few people were actually coming out to the dance floor (Klein and Lilly were oddly absent). Figuring that this was as good a time to step out as any, Ragna was about to head off the dance floor before he saw another member of his guild heading towards him. "Silica?"

"O-oh! W-were you trying to get off the dance floor?" Silica asked as she realized that would probably have been his intent. "I-I'm sorry!"

"Don't be, you didn't know," Ragna told her. "Now that I think about it, you were probably the only person in my group that I didn't dance with me back on Floor One."

"I… I was a little busy…" Silica said, trying not to look behind her. Casting his glance, Ragna realized that her little _fan club_ was standing a short distance behind her surrounding the table Pina was resting on, seeming to wait for a chance to dance with Silica. Ragna had the feeling that if he were any less intimidating he'd be getting glared at something fierce. "B-But it's okay, you don't have to keep dancing for me…"

"Well I think I've got one more song left in me," Ragna told her nonchalantly before smirking confidently. "Come on, I'm not going to be this generous the next time someone asks me for a dance."

"I… if you're sure," Silica said as they headed back out onto the dance floor. Given that Silica's height as the smallest in his guild it was clearly apparent the amount Ragna would have to lean forward more than he was used to for this dance with the young dragon tamer and trying to do so while dancing was even more awkward than usual. "I… I'm sorry, this probably won't work."

"..." Even if the young dragon tamer was doubting their chances of moving forward, it was clear to Ragna that she really _had_ wanted to dance that night. Letting out a deep breath through his nostrils as he realized what he needed to do, he gently lifted Silica off of her feet causing her to make a sound between a shriek and a squeak as he placed her feet on top of his metal plated shoes. "That better?"

It didn't look like she could respond, in fact her face was so red Ragna was worried how much blood she had rushing to her face. Figuring he needed to lighten her mood, the Reaper decided to try his hand at humor.

"Normally I'd tell ya not to step on my feet, but right now that's kind of the point." He didn't get a response from Silica as she appeared to be uncomfortably still. "Alright then…"

Moving past that as best he could, he slowly tried to guide Silica in the slower dance. He was relieved that there were other couples on the floor so that watching eyes wouldn't be focused on two of them in this slightly more embarrassing dance. Silica didn't say a word as Ragna moved the two of them gently through the dance, though she did seem to be leaning forward onto Ragna a lot for support (balance or otherwise). When the dance ended, she stepped off his shoes and gave him a quick bow, clearly still a little embarrassed with the red on her face.

"Thanks for that," Ragna said, trying to get Silica just a little more confident. "It's nice dancing with you."

"Th-thank you… You too..." Silica told him with a smile though she was still a little shaky. Walking off, it looked like she was going to talk to the snickering Argo, likely to set the record straight with their performance.

Feeling that he was finally in the clear, Ragna headed off towards the buffet for a second attempt to enjoy some of the food offered… only to have his arm grabbed as he was literally dragged back onto the dance floor by Yuuki. The Reaper let out an audible groan as he was forced to prepare for yet another dance.

"Don't think you're done just yet," Yuuki told him confidently as she got the dance she wanted without much resistance. "You're the one who made it clear you were open to dancing, so you have no one else to blame. Liz is still waiting for her turn with you and you'll have to give Asuna and Sinon their first dances with you eventually."

"Yeah, yeah…" the Reaper sighed.

"Come on, staying social for a change isn't that bad is it?" the dark haired swordswoman asked, giving the Reaper a bright smile as they began moving.

As they danced along Ragna took notice of his friends and allies at the small Inn. Agil and Diabel seemed to be having a laugh over something by the buffet table as they continued to pour wine into their goblets. Klein was trying to get Lilly up to dance as it seemed like there was something his flirty friend was embarrassed about. Silica looked like she was trying to get the record straight with Argo while Leafa seemed like she was having her own trouble with the Info Brokers ideas. And then there was Liz, Asuna, and the newly joined Sinon, sitting at their table and watching the Reaper with bemused smirks, perhaps willing to get their own turns dancing with their leader.

"I gotta admit…" the Reaper began before smiling softly. "It has its moments."

 _ **POLL: There are some people that are wondering how long this series is going to go on for as this is only Chapter 11 and we're only up to Floor 4. While I don't exactly mind having a long series and I don't much like the idea of skipping floors, I do know that I should leave my readers with their a small say. My poll will simply ask if each floor (once the last one is cleared) should last a few chapters or if I should make a one off chapter. I'll inform you of the theme of each upcoming floor. Per example, this one is Ruins in the Valley. The Poll is on my profile page.**_

 _ **Author's Note: Good lord this took a while to put out, but it feels awesome that it's finally out there. Not to pat myself on the back, but I'm exceptionally pleased with how this chapter came out because I wasn't expecting something half this long (just a straight boss fight honestly). That said I always love some character development, world building, and of course character interaction. Enough gushing, ONTO THE REVIEWS!**_

 _TheEmeraldMage_ : Thanks for a lengthy review. As for the Gun Gale spin off girl I have heard that she's a better version of Kirito, but I haven't watched the series myself.

 _Wlyman2009_ : *Remembers what Kibaou did this chapter* ...You have no idea.

 _Kerrowe_ : It's more of a comment to CF's ending and it was said in the very first chapter.

 _Lightkirinhuruname_ : ...HEEEEEEEEEEEEEERE

 _Reclusive Dork_ : Minion: Dark lord Ganon, why did you throw away the literal embodiment of darkness and destruction?Ganon: Eh, probably nothing.

 _Lovnag_ : Not really, no.

 _The Unplanner_ : There will be… some of those.

 _Guest_ : Well Sanae was really popular in the first story and his comeback was already demanded in this story, I don't know what to tell you. It's not like he's going to be a constant presence anyways.

 _Dracus7_ : Sorry, haven't watched that one yet.

 _Ceadus-slayer_ : I hear that's good, but I haven't found the series anywhere I've looked.

 _ **Be sure to vote in the poll! Ciao!**_


	6. A Tasteless Defeat

_**Sword XII: A Tasteless Defeat**_

 _December 15th, 2022_

" _Yare yare daze_ … What a day…" Ragna grumbled to himself as he walked through the fields of the fourth floor with the sun slowly starting to rise behind him.

After leaving the festivities when his bout of dancing had ended, he'd headed straight for the fourth floor to take advantage of how empty it was liable to be. He knew that he needed to work on _all_ of his skills and he needed this private time to focus on his own specialized skill pool. Disappointingly, he hadn't acquired anything new from all of his grinding but at very least he'd managed to score a level up that he'd been trying to obtain for a while. The dungeon he'd explored hadn't turned up any leads for the floor boss and it hadn't even offered a dungeon boss at the end for a better prize. A long and grueling effort made all the worse by…

 _Growl_

...his empty stomach.

"Dammit."

Don't get him wrong, Ragna wouldn't want be considered to be a picky eater and he's had to settle for less than ideal food plenty of times in his travels, but the fact that he's had to eat _SAO's_ lower ranking food for so long was continuing to get on his nerves. Aside from combat training, one of the biggest things that Jubei had drilled into his head was the ability to cook, so even just eating food that wouldn't live up to his master's standards felt wrong in a way.

"Guess I could always try cooking my own food," he thought aloud, talking to himself as he headed through the grassy plains. "But… I barely have any ingredients, I sure as hell don't have the equipment to work with and I wouldn't know the first place to start cooking." The Reaper sighed. "Guess until I can find those, I'm fresh out of-"

"EEEEEEEEEKKK!" came a scream a short ways away. Sighing to himself as he knew he was about to be dragged into something, he hurried towards the scream drawing his sword as he went. On the far side of the clearing, he saw a terrified girl that was surrounded by monsters. "GET BACK! SOMEONE HELP!"

"Every damn day with this… I'm starting to see a pattern," Ragna muttered to himself. Giving a passing glance at the girl who was trying to defend herself, he noticed that she had a yellow cursor which would signify that she was an NPC. "Guess I don't to worry about Leafa getting this one to join me… in fact here I'll be able to get away with using a couple more of my personal skills."

The threat that was attacking the young NPC maiden was a group of _Ruble Spiders_ ; spiders that (as the obvious name suggested) were covered in a thick, hard, and rock-like carapice. While these were probably the weakest enemies that Ragna had encountered so far on this floor, that didn't mean you should let your guards down around these things. Their caripices made them hard to stagger and made then very endurant, especially for only a common monster. This meant that players would be in for a long encounter and that could be an issue if they were bitten. These things had fangs that did laughable damage by themselves, but they would often poison their target and that damage could be difficult to shrug off. Where these thing would _really_ be dangerous was in ambushing unexpecting players since they looked like any other piece of aesthetic ruin ruble to the common eye. If a bunch of these things surrounded a player, it could mean a length demise where they would struggle to heal their poison. Some of them came in even bigger forms with a higher endurance, a stronger bite, and a just as deadly poison… but the ones here and now were of common size and Ragna was the one with an ambush advantage.

" _ **HELL'S FANG!"**_ the Reaper shouted as he rushed forward with his iconic move. As expected, the move didn't cause the heavier monster to go flying or stagger, but Ragna had planned for the follow up. Taking _Aramasa_ with his free hand, he caught the monster in a great upward slash to inflict another blow to the creature's health before plunging the sword down into the arachnid's body. With one of the monster's destroyed, its remaining friends quickly lost their interest in the small girl that was barely a threat as they looked towards Ragna with fangs dripping with venom.

"Looks like I got their attention," Ragna plainly observed before turning to the NPC. "Stay back while I handle this, it shouldn't take long." Thankfully it seemed like she understood him, as she gave Ragna a nod and started walking away from the conflict. Without another word, the Reaper charged once more into the fields of combat.

Leaping up above one of the spiders, Ragna cleaved his sword toward its top. Leaping against on of the monsters behind it, the Reaper flipped backwards before diving down onto the monster's back and plunged his sword through the beast and caused it to shatter.

Another of the spiders came up from behind to attack him, but Ragna's _**Inferno Divider**_ was one of the few moves that could send it into air. While he couldn't attack the creature while he was in the air after performing his move, but he could make it back to the ground before it did an continue his assault. Performing a slash as soon as he landed he managed to keep the creature in the air and cause further damage to it. Following up with another _**Hell's Fang**_ , his attack sent the creature flying and caused it to shatter before it hit the ground.

Channeling his power into the _Aramasa_ , Ragna unleashed his weapon's great scythe form complete with a wicked blade of black Seither. Making a large slash with his weapon, he managed to catch all three of the remaining spiders in a single powerful swing of his blade. Leaping back to gain distance from the enemy, Ragna began charging his _Skill_. Given the creature's less than stellar speed, Ragna managed to fully charge his skill and unleashed it; taking down another of the spiders. Turning his weapon back into a sword, he quickly charged and unleashed a _Horizontal Slash_ to down another of the monsters. Using both hands to transition to the greatsword style and chained into _Blast_ , finishing the last of the spiders off.

"Well that's done," Ragna muttered as the results screen came up. ' _Nothing here that's all that new… just another battle like any other.'_ Giving a sigh, he closed the menu and looked around the area seeing the NPC he'd saved from earlier hurrying over to him. ' _...Might be the start of a questline or something to that effect.'_

"Wow, those are some really awesome moves you've got there!" the NPC said to him with sparkles in her eyes. Now that he was taking the time to get a proper look at her, he saw that this girl's height barely made it past his waist. She was dressed in a strange hard hat that was topped by goggles. While her leather clothing was heavier than most, it was far from what would be considered to be regular armor. Her baggy pants led down to toeless sandals. She had a large and heavy pack on her back, indicating she was some kind of explorer. "I've never seen anyone fight like that before! You're really something!"

"I've been told that before," Ragna said, though he didn't smile at the compliment. ' _Is she just saying that because she's 'programmed to, or is it because of my moves… Maybe I should play it safe around NPC's after all.'_ "So who are you, and what are you doing all the way out here?"

"Huh, but I'm not very far from my encampment," the girl said as she pointed down a short ways, showing a small campground that was surrounded by a safezone.

' _I know damn well that wasn't there a second ago,'_ Ragna thought to himself as he scowled at the location. "Your name then?"

"You can call me… Grantie!" the NPC said, a short but strange pause before she'd said her name. "Thanks for saving me back there, I really owe you one!" Ragna didn't say anything, only crossing his arms as he waited for an ending to these strange events. "But… I don't really have much money on me… But I think I've got something else you could use!"

"Oh yeah, what?" the Reaper demanded, only for a _Quest Rewards_ selection to come up that gave Reaper pause. Aside from a sizable amount of experience (far too much from a run in like this), he also obtained a _Beginner's Cooking Set_ along with several ingredients meant for making meal.

"You're… sure you don't need this?" Ragna asked, thinking he was taking supplies from an NPC.

"It's fine! I've got plenty of left!" she told him before gesturing to her tent in the safe zone. "Feel free to use my campground to rest up! I need to change location anyways."

"...Okay?" Ragna said as he scratched the back of his head. Her dialogue options seeming to be finished, the NPC then turned and started heading off again, evidently with no fear of being attacked again by monsters or even requesting a escort quest. ' _This whole thing seems odd as hell… guess she did give me some supplies,'_ Ragna thought as he considered the gift before turning to the campsite which consisted of a small one person tent, a few pieces of ruin rubble to sit on, and a fire pit. Turning his head back to get one last look at the departing NPC, he was surprised to find that she was already gone, having completely disappeared on the flat plains. ' _...This reeks of something,.I don't know what the hell it is, but I'm not a fan of it.'_

Shaking his head, he thought he's at least take what he had and headed for the small campsite and gained the safezone's protection from any of the monsters in the field. Scrolling through the items he'd received, he tried to come up with a meal to cure his current hunger pangs.

' _So I complain once or twice and not five minutes later I'm actually given something completely at random that can help me out,'_ Ragna thought to himself as he looked through the items he carried. ' _Even if this isn't my home world, I know my own luck well enough that something isn't right here.'_

Knowing that this game carried its own 'cooking skill' and he hadn't invested any points into it, he decided that he'd have to settle for making himself a rather simple breakfast for now. Taking a match and some firewood out of the supplies he'd gotten, he started a small cooking flame in the campsite fire pit. He then took out a small frying pan, three eggs, some choice pork cuts, a small cutting board, a spatula, a sharp cutting knife, and a small eating set. Keeping everything close together, he started his preparation on the meal.

' _Starting with the meat,'_ Ragna thought as he took the small knife and looked at the edge to make sure it would cut. ' _Couple of slices of ham would go great with the eggs.'_ Holding the meat in place on the cutting, he began cutting the ham into thick hearty slices… or would have, if it hadn't turned into cubed cuts the second he made contact with it. ' _That… wasn't what I was going for.'_

Shaking his head but deciding to roll with it, he focused on the eggs. Cracking one against the pan's edge, he rose it above the pan and fully broke the shell with a single hand for the yolk and white to fall in. With its contents gone the egg shells shattered in his hand, saving him the trouble of throwing it out himself. Even if things had gone as planned, Ragna couldn't be too happy with cracking a single egg… but then he noticed the egg in the pan had a few small egg shell fragments in it and his mood grew sour.

' _Dammit, really?'_ he swore to himself as he got another egg. This time he tried to be a touch more careful and used both of his hands to crack the egg. He thought he was in luck since this egg and yolk came out perfectly, but when he tried it with the third egg, there were still shells inside the egg and yolk. ' _For the love of… now I have to play this annoying ass game of chance every time I want to crack a stupid egg!?'_

 **(Author's Note: LOOKING AT YOU** _ **Kingdom Hearts 3.**_ **Screw your annoying cooking minigame, screw them all to high hell… that damn egg one especially.)**

His temper already rising, Ragna tried to keep his cool as he deposited the meat cubes from the cutting board and held the pan over the fire to begin cooking. Quickly enough the meat and eggs began sizzling, much quicker than Ragna was used to. Shrugging, he pushed the ham around with his spatula making sure he'd cook all of the meat evenly through. He'd barely started when he saw that the meat and eggs looked like they were thoroughly cooked.

' _Already? But I barely started cooking this,'_ the Reaper thought to himself as he looked at the meat. ' _There's no way that this is already cooked, if I cooked this for twice as long they're still be pink in the middle and HOLY CRAP!'_

Ragna struggled to move fast as one of the eggs and a few piece of the ham caught fire. Quickly taking the pan out of the fire, he quickly used his spatula to throw the flaming bits into the fire so that he could try and save the rest. The fire ate up the discarded bits as Ragna quickly deposited the meal to one of his plates to prevent the rest from catching fire.

' _Dammit, that wasn't good,'_ Ragna thought to himself as he looked over the poor meal he'd made. Not only was the ham in the wrong form, but the pieces that he had saved were still a little burnt on the outside. The single egg he'd had to throw away was the only one without shells in it and the eggs that were left had begun to harden from too much cooking. Not the most appetizing meal.

"Well… I wanted my own cooking," Ragna muttered as he decided to start with the meat. Taking one of the less burnt pieces he managed to chew through the crusty exterior, but without the smokey taste and texture it was about as bland as you could get. Managing to get it down, he moved on to the eggs. The was barely any oozing from the yolk once he'd cut one in half, the taste was even blander than the ham, the texture was off by a wide margin, and the egg shells did _nothing_ to help it. "Shit, just… shit."

Jubei's teachings still taking hold after all of these years, Ragna continued eating determined to finish his own cooking… but damn him if it wasn't the hardest fight he'd had that day.

 _Later -Floor Four Town-_

"Hope that map data comes in handy out there!" Argo said cheerfully as she adjusted her hood. "Stay safe and come back if you need any oth'r info!" The leader of a small group of players gave a nod as they headed out of town with the data that they'd been looking for, ready to tackle a dungeon on the newly opened floor in the hunt for levels and experience. Argo checked the Col she'd been given for the trade and smiled. A new floor opening up made any information valuable and this was prime time to start selling whatever basic info that she could get her hands on. Her smile didn't falter as she closed her menu and saw one of her regulars approaching her. "How's the floor?"

"Large, full of monsters, and it's got plenty of dungeons to look through," Ragna told her with a sigh. "How's business?"

"In the boom right now, and now that yer here I can practically smell the Col," the _Info Broker_ told him, a bright shine in her eyes and a happy grin on her face.

"Get your nose checked on ked then, I'm not here for much," the Reaper told her, leaving Argo to give him a disappointed look… before smirking.

"In that case, you can settle your tab of-"

"Let's talk info first, prices later," her guild leader asserted, leaving her to give a small shrug. "No matter where I go, there's some hooded girl around here treating me like her meal ticket…"

"Eh, not my fault that you make for such an easy one," the info broker told him.

"I gotta wonder. So, you know any place that I might be able to grab some spices?"

"Spices… you mean for cooking?" Argo asked as she thought it over. "That mean you an' Asuna are finally takin' a crack at the cooking system?"

"...Something like that," Ragna told her enigmatically. "So you know a place or don't you?"

"Well…" Argo said, trying to think. "I heard about a place where you can buy cooking supplies in the _Town of Beginnings,_ but that's about all I've ever heard about cooking. Not much more I can tell you, so sorry."

"Better than nothing I guess," Ragna said with a sigh.

"Since there's next to nothing I can tell ya, I won't charge ya for this piece. Anything else you wanted to ask me?"

"Yeah, small project that I've got for you," Ragna told her. "There was an NPC I just found on this floor, called herself Grantie. I was hoping you could ask around about her."

"About an NPC?" she confirmed, tilting her head in slight confusion. "What's so special about 'em?"

"I honestly couldn't tell you, but they were acting pretty damn weird… I can't help but shake the feeling that something's up with them, maybe something important even."

"Right, like a clue ta clearing the floor," Argo said before nodding. "If that's the case, I can ask around the other infobrokers. You can pay me once I get you yer info."

"That works, while you're at it I was hoping there was something else you could do for me. You know the spider monsters around the field, right?" Argo nodded. "...Just pass the word on to be careful in the dungeons; they team up in hordes there and it's easy for them to get the drop on you. I don't want anyone doing anything stupid."

"So what do you call whatever the hell it is you do?"

" _The Reaper's Job."_

"...You know somethin', I can't tell if you're being serious or not," Argo told him, leaving Ragna to finally take a turn in shooting a smirk. "But sure, I'll pass the info along and let everyone else know ta be careful. Get back to you in a bit?"

"Sounds good, because I've got supplies to buy," Ragna told her as he started heading off to the town's teleport gate.

"Make sure you save some cash! You still got yer tab to pay off!" Argo shouted his way with a taunting smile that stretched across her face.

...Ragna had to fight hard not to turn around and flip her off.

 _Town of Beginnings_

It had been quite some time since the Reaper had returned to the first floor of _SAO_ , with the new floors getting opened up and stronger monsters showing up on the frontlines he hadn't felt much of a need to return to the starting point of the game until now. There were a lot fewer people walking around here than there were that last time he'd been here, but with new floors and town opening up it just made sense for them to move higher up. Most of the people he did see standing around we equipped with their starting gear, meaning they were likely the type of players that would be sitting back and waiting for the game to be cleared so that they wouldn't have to risk their own necks. While they types of players were often called _Slackers_ by certain players (Kibaou) that were actually putting work into the game, Ragna was oddly one of the outliers hat didn't have a problem with their self preservation lifestyle.

' _Not as many people here as I was expecting,'_ he thought to himself as he walked through the streets. He knew that not all of the the players hoping to stay out of the conflict would be out in the open; most of them would have locked themselves in room the first chance they'd gotten and stayed in there for as long as they could to keep themselves as safe as possible. All in all, it was a sad state of things for the first city. ' _...Let's just focus on finding that shop for now.'_

Walking through the city streets, Ragna slowly started to realize that this was going to be hard than he'd thought it would be. He'd only been to the _Town of Beginnings_ a few times and while it was no Kagutsuchi, he hadn't been able to truly appreciate how massive the city was until now. It was a complete maze of streets and to his unfamiliar eye there was no easy way of telling where anything was. In the end he had to resort to talking to the players on the streets and while some wouldn't even talk to him, eventually he got the directions he needed to start heading the right way.

' _This is supposed to be the place?'_ Ragna thought to himself as he stood in front of the building that was supposed to be a shop that offered spices. It was on the far end of town, didn't have any windows, and had a small and faded sign that was impossible to read. ' _...I'm getting a bad feel off of this place.'_

Shaking his head as he walked inside he was greeted by a store that was a little on the drab side. An elderly NPC man sat boredly behind the front desk not far from the front door. All along the small stores walls were shelves filled countless jars of powder, roots, trimmings, and other forms of herbs and spices. Taking a close look at one of the jars, Ragna saw that it read _Mandrake_ _Root._

"...Don't think I'm going to be finding any paprika in here," the Reaper predicted with a soft sigh. Taking a more thorough look around the store, he saw that most of the ingredients were labbed with some form of fantasy name. _Dragon's Spice, Troll Leaves, Kobold Shreds…_ None of these sounded like ingredients to him. "Honestly…"

Just as he heard the door to the shop open, the Reaper paused as he came across one of the jars. It was labeled as _Pyre Shavingings,_ but it looked a lot like a pepper mix that he used to use in one of his spice rubs when he barbecued. Figuring it was something he could start with, he reached for the jar… right as someone else was going for the spice.

"Oh sor-" Ragna tried to say, but found it too difficult as his heart skipped a few beats. ' _What the…?'_

The woman standing in front of him looked far too damn familiar, almost like he was looking at an image of his past. She had dark redish hair that was done into a ponytail in the back. She was even dressed as a nun in a similar dress that he was used to seeing. If it wasn't for her glasses and different hairstyle in the front, Ragna might've screamed _Ghost!_ like a little girl.

"No I'm sorry, after you." the woman told Ragna, who shakily turned his head away as he looked over an grabbed the jar in front of it, pretending to look the spice over. "Is something wrong?"

"...This stuff…" Ragna began, still feeling awkward with talking to someone who looked so close to his foster mother. "Is it close to Red Pepper flakes?"

"Yes, that's the closest thing you'll find in this game at least," she told him. Ragna slowly nodded as he went to unscrew the jar, only for it to appear sealed shut. "Are you… not sure how to purchase ingredients?"

"Yeah, first time," he said before offering her the jar so that she could do it. Instead of taking it in her hand, she tapped the front of the jar and brought out a small screen. Adjusting how much of the spice she was buying (in grams) which also showed the price she'd have to pay for that amount, she accepted the trade on the screen and the contents of the jar were shifted to her inventory.

"Huh… thanks," Ragna said as he went into the jar's menu himself, grabbing half a kilogram of the spice. Giving a satisfied nod, he placed it back onto the shelf.

"Miss Sasha! We found the _Dragon Spices_!" a child called from behind Ragna. Turning his head, he saw that there were three children (two boys and a girl), with the lead one holding one of the jars he'd been looking at earlier. With the fact that these three looked nothing alike and had called her _Miss_ Sasha, Ragna was starting to piece together what was really going on.

"That's perfect," Sasha said as she took the jar and got the spices that she needed. Smiling to the children, she handed them back the jar. "Okay, now I just need you to go find a the Elder Root and we can head out."

"Okay!" one of the boys said as the three ran off with the jar. Sasha watched them leave with a soft smile on her face… one which Ragna had seen before.

"...You're their caretaker then?" Ragna asked as the kids in their search.

"Someone has to be," Sasha told him, her smile turning just a touch sad. "There are more kids inside of _Sword Art Online_ than you'd think, and many of them didn't have their parents come with them on launch day. Some have parents that are on the frontlines fighting to get their children out of this game and others…"

' _Others have lost someone…'_ Ragna finished in his head, though he knew not to say it aloud. "How many are you looking after?"

"A baker's dozen," Sasha told him. "They're good children, but they're energetic and restless like anyone would be in this situation." She turned to Ragna and smiled. "It's not easy work and I have to be careful with our money, but I'm still happy to be doing it."

"...They're lucky to have you," a sentiment that he knew only too well as he thought back to what little he could remember of his early childhood.

"We found the _Elder Root_ ," another of the children said as she came back to their caretaker. Sasha then purchased the ingredient using the same method that she'd used earlier and the kids ran off again to return the spice jar to its proper rack.

"I'm afraid I have to get going; I need to get these kids back to the others at the Inn and get their lunch started,," she explained to her new acquaintance. "It was nice to meet you…?"

"Ragna… And likewise, Sasha," he said in response. Watching as she left with the children, Ragna opened up his menu and went through a few small commands. ' _This isn't much… but it'll give them all a fighting chance. I can try to give them that much.'_

 _Later -Ragna's Campsite-_

"Hmm…" Ragna hummed to him as he tasted the special blend of blend of spices he'd created. "Not exactly my premium stuff… but I guess this will do for now."

The Reaper had ended up going a little overboard in the spice shop, buying just about every spice the store had to offer and in bulk. Even seeing how much Col each ounce of spices cost, Ragna wanted to be sure that he'd have enough to work with when he was preparing his food. Since his breakfast that morning had gone south and his plans for lunch hadn't happened due to him fighting to earn back the money he'd spent, the Reaper decided that he was going to do his damndest to make his dinner count. Already he'd spent well over and hour to be sure that he'd have the proper spices to go on the meat.

"Now what to make and how to make it," the Reaper thought to himself aloud as he cycled through his options, seeing what meat the spices would go on. He'd already had pork for breakfast so that was out. Beef was a decent option, but he felt that his spices could go on something better. Considering his his options, he then came across a skinned chicken in his option settings. "...Rotisserie style it is."

Using the tools that he'd gotten from the NPC yesterday, he managed to set up a small rotisserie style cooker over the firepit. Lighting a small flame underneath his cooking setup, he put the chicken over it and slowly started to turn the meat. Once it started to heat up, he slowly started applying his spice blend as he turned it. It seemed to stay on the chicken easily enough, being absorb as the bird cooked and it's juices sizzled.

' _Okay, now my gut is telling me that this isn't long enough even though it looks cooked,'_ Ragna thought to himself before sighing and taking the bird off of the flame, while keeping the fire going. ' _If I don't want a repeat of this morning, this is the time where I need to take the bird off.'_

Placing the bird onto a small plate along with an apple from his inventory, the Reaper began his feast. Using his fork and knife he cut around the bone and held up a small piece, examining it. It didn't look any different from the stuff he was used to making and he could tell that it had cooked well with the spices. Bringing it up to his mouth the Reaper began to chew, enjoying the flavor and the texture it brought before swallowing… and promptly facepalming.

"Goddammit… why is it raw this time?" he groaned at himself before looking back at the chicken in a fierce glare, stabbing it through a second time, and putting it back over the fire. His determination to cook this chicken fully was meet by failure because not ten seconds after he'd put it back over the flames, his dinner bursting into flames before shattering into light. "...No… No… No no no no no NO!" Ragna shouted as he delved back into his menu. "I swear to god I'm eating SOMETHING tonight!"

...That something would be an apple.

 _December 16th, 2022 -Market Street-_

"That should be everything," Sasha said with a bright smile as she turned to the children with her. "Great work everyone, it's so much easier buying supplies with you helping me."

The three orphans traveling with her gave their caretaker a proud smile. While these weren't the same three as she'd brought shopping yesterday, they were just as eager to help with as the last group. All of the kids under Sasha care were. Taking a few of them out at a time was one of the few times that she could make sure they were safe while giving them some fresh air, hence why she always made a point to go out on these daily trips.

"Miss Sasha," a little girl asked, trying to give the redhead her biggest puppy dog eyes. "Do we have to go back to the Inn now? Can't we stay out and play a little later?"

"I'm sorry Juno, but you know that the others are waiting on us and I have to get back to them so I can get dinner started," Sasha patiently explained. At Juno's disappointed whine, she gave a patient smile. "But you know what? Maybe if I can get a couple of the parents to help, we can try bringing everyone to the park an extra day this week."

"Okay," the little girl said trying to hold onto hope as she gave Sasha a smile. Her smile quickly vanished as she stood on her tiptoes and leaned to the side looking at someone who was behind the older woman. Sasha turned her head to follow where she was looking, eyes landing on a familiar red coat.

"Can you three wait for me here?" she asked them sweetly. "This will just take a minute." They were a little confused to be sure, but they all nodded in agreement and promised to wait. Knowing she'd be gone for a only a minute, she headed off to she the stranger she'd spoken to the day before.

Ragna had his arms moodily crossed as he stood in front of the fish shop, waiting as the owner prepared their best cut of salmon meat for the Reaper. The Reaper's eyes were watching as the fishmonger prepared his order, almost sure that they'd leave some bones in or even forget to gut the darn thing… that's how his luck seemed to be going lately.

"Excuse me?" Ragna did his best to immediately drop his scowl as he turned to face Sasha. "I'm not bothering you, am I?

"Nah, just sorta caught me on a bad day," he told her, trying to relax his usual 'on edge' personality. "Something you needed?"

"I just wanted to thank you…" she said to him nervously, adjusting her hair with slight embarrassment. "I wasn't expecting you to send Col our way… and I certainly wasn't expecting the sheer amount that you sent."

"Don't worry about it, I got plenty more," he told her as the fishmonger placed his order on the table. Nodding his head as he accepted it, Ragna sent the item to his inventory.

"Most days I have to rely on donations from the parents just to get by, so you've really managed to get me some peace of mind," she told him. "It's a really kind thing you did."

"Well… figured it would be kind of heartless if I didn't," Ragna told her as he gestured back to the kids. "You should get back to them, and I gotta get going to start cooking my own dinner."

"Right… oh, he's something small for you," Sasha said as she opened her menu. "It's not much, but I think that it will go great on your salmon."

"A lemon?" Ragna asked as he saw what Sasha had sent him over his screen.

"Just drizzle that over your fish and and it'll make your dinner even better," she promised him before walking back to take care of the kids, but not before turning back to Ragna and bowing. "Thank you again, you have no idea what you've done for us."

Ragna didn't say anything, but he did give her a small relaxed smirk as he watched her walk away, escorting the children back to the Inn they were staying in. He did notice the children glancing over his way, shooting him odd looks as they followed. The Reaper watched them go, waiting until they were out of sight until he opened his menu.

"Hope Argo doesn't find out about this," Ragna said to himself aloud as he prepared another donation of Col to Sasha, this one thrice as much as the last. "If she did, her prices would hike so far I wouldn't be able to afford a bed to sleep in."

 _Later -Ragna's Campsite-_

"Sasha wasn't wrong," Ragna thought aloud, laying back on his side and resting near his campground fire. His prized sword _Aramasa_ was impaled roughly into the ground on one side of him and a plate of his most recent creation sat next to him on the other, untouched save for a single bite taken out of it. The Reaper's attention remained on the sky as he thought back to the results. "That lemon really did help the flavor… Mixed well with my spices too… But…" His face went into a scowl as he tried to cut another piece off of his piece of salmon. It was taking an awful amount of force to make any noticeable progress. "...It doesn't matter if the salmon has the same damn texture as rubber." Ragna sent the item to his storage as he sat up. "With how long that stuff's going to last, I might as well treat it like jerky."

Giving a small grunt, the Reaper rose to his feet and dusted himself off of any dirt. Grabbing his weapon's hilt, he roughly yanked the armament out of the ground and gave a rough swing towards the fireplace, the force enough to immediately put the flames out. Walking outside the safe zone, the Reaper went looking for trouble once more.

"Back to the drawing board tomorrow…" he promised himself.

 _December 17th, 2022_

" _So you're back here again," Sasha noted as she and Ragna walked down the streets of the Town of Beginnings to the market of the first floor. Unlike the last time, Ragna was walking close enough that the kids could get a good look at the giant that he was (in their eyes). "You must have a real passion for cooking."_

" _It's a hobby of mine…" Ragna told her bluntly as he looked around the market for ingredients. "So… what were you thinking of making tonight?"_

" _Hmm… Well I suppose it's been a while since I've made a stir fry for the children," she considered. "Maybe I'll try one of those tonight, I can even see if I can find some pineapple to put in it."_

"The rice fused together like some inedible blob and the toppings are burnt, lumpy, and smell like shit," Ragna muttered as he looked over the bowl still completely full, without even a bite taken out of it. Growling, he dumped the contents into his campsite fire. He soon wished he hadn't as the smell covered his campsite. Grabbing his sword once more, he headed off to recollect the money that he'd lost.

 _December 18th, 2022_

" _I saw instructions on how to flambe meat," Sasha said as she looked over some of the heavy liquor that was on sale at one of the market stalls. "It sounded kind of fun, so maybe I should try it."_

"That… was expected…" Ragna coughed, his face completely covered in soot, the meat in his pan completely burnt to ash, and his haired blasted back in a poor hairstyle from the explosion. His fireplace seemed a little less welcoming from then on.

 _December 19th, 2022_

" _The children might not like it, but I have to make sure they eat their vegetables," Sasha said as she purchased a few heads of lettuce to the obvious grimacing of the children. "Be sure you wash and dry them thoroughly, even in this game it makes them fresh and taste all the better."_

"...In my case it just makes them a soggy mess," the Reaper growled with an obvious tick mark on his face. The salad before him nothing more than a collection of torn lettuce, tomatoes that were falling apart, limp cucumber slices, and dressing that was appallingly watered down by the other ingredients. "Can't even make a salad."

 _December 20th, 2022_

" _Since all of the children ate all of their dinner last night, I thought I'd try making something a little more advanced,"_ _Sasha told the Reaper as she looked over the options for cheese she could purchase._ " _Pizza sounds like something fun I could get everyone involved with.'_

"..."

Ragna didn't even want to say anything during his deep facepalm of shame. His cooking was so bad that it was completely _**Censored**_ … not unlike Noel Vermillion's death dinners.

 _December 21st, 2022_

"Is everything all right? Normally when you come shopping with you'll either get something similar to what I'm buying or some grand mixture so that you can experiment with your cooking, but today all you've been doing is buying some cooking essentials in bulk."

"Well… today might be the last day that I'm going to be coming down here for a while," Ragna told her honestly. "I'm not going to be working with anything too fancy from now on so I'm just stocking up on the basics."

"If that's what you want, I'm not going to keep you down here," Sasha told him as she looked over the vegetables that were on sale. "Still, it was nice of you to come down and visit us while you could."

"It might be for the best though, I'm pretty sure most of the kids are terrified of me," Ragna admitted as he watched the three kids that had come shopping with Sasha that day as they rushed to find ingredients.

"You'd be surprised, most of them can't stop asking about you," Sasha told him as she looked over the types of beef that were on sale and tried to decide what would go best into a pie. "Many of them are taken with that coat of yours."

"Means they have good taste at least," the Reaper told her with small smirk, earning earning a small laugh from Sasha. "...At the very least I can try and leave you with some more Col before I go, that's the least I can do."

"I really wish you wouldn't give out so much at once though," Sasha told him. "It's not that I'm not grateful for it, but you're going to need some if you need to fight on the front lines."

"I'll be fine, I-" Whatever Ragna had been about to say was stopped as a small alarm rang out. The small screen in front of Sasha indicated that she had been sent a message. Knowing that it could be important, the Reaper decided to put their conversation on hold until the caretaker had read it.

"Oh dear," Sasha sighed. Though she seemed sad, it didn't seem bad enough to have heard that someone had just died. "There goes our visit to the park."

"What happened?" Ragna asked.

"Whenever I take the children on a trip to the park I try to make sure that I bring one or two of the parents along so that we can have two pairs of eyes on all of them. That message was from a mother of one of the kids; apparently she can't make it since her guild needs her… and all of the other parents are already busy."

"Sounds pretty lame," Ragna muttered as he crossed his arms… before giving a soft sigh. "If the kids are okay with me… like you said… I can step in for today."

"You don't have to do that; they'll be able to see their families on Christmas anyways," Sasha told him.

"Not all of them will, and these days in the park seem to mean a lot to them," he told her. "I don't have anything else to do today, and I'm not exactly in a hurry to try cooking again." He looked at the kids who were hurrying back to Sasha, carrying the supplies she'd sent them for… a happy laugh as they raced back to their caretaker. The Reaper turned his head away. "It's your call."

Not long later all of the kids were inside on of the small park on the first floor, running around, playing with a ball or their dolls, and laughing as they seemed to enjoy themselves. While he kept his eyes on the children as he'd promised, Ragna was more or less relaxed as he leaned back on the pack bench, sitting next to Sasha as they watched over the young players

"Dang, they got a lot of energy," Ragna observed, almost impressed with youth's stamina as they race around the grassy fields.

"Having to spend so much time inside of Inns for protection can make them restless, she explained. "Meaning that whenever they finally do get the chance to go out and play, they'll be running themselves ragged."

"Must make it easier to put them to sleep," Ragna guessed, trying to put a positive twist on things for once in a rare while.

"I won't deny that it does," Sasha told him, giving a soft smile as she watched over the children. "Do you mind if I ask you something?"

"Already sort of did, but go right ahead."

"If you're trying to make a joke, your humor could use work," Sasha told him honestly with a giggle, a statement that did little to help Ragna's waning confidence. "I'm sorry, but I have to know, is there a reason you seem so focused on helping the children?" Ragna didn't answer he immediately. "You've given more Col than I thought I'd ever see and now you're taking the time out of your obviously busy life on the frontlines to help me…"

"...Think it's suspicious, do you?" Ragna questioned as he watched over the children.

"Nothing like that… I just wanted to know why you feel like you have to give us so much when we don't have anything to give you in return," Sasha asked him, trying leaning forward so she could try to get a better look at the Reaper's face. She couldn't grasp a thing as Ragna's expression remained almost hauntingly stoic.

"...It's because you remind of someone I used to know… someone that took care of me when I was that age," he told her darkly, thinking back to his past life. "...And because I want to make sure they have a chance in this godforsaken hell hole."

"...I understand that you're serious about this, but try to keep the swearing to the minimum," Sasha strictly instructed, breaking the Reaper out of his moody expression as he turned to her with a guilty smile. "I'd be hearing plenty of complaints from the parents if their children started swearing."

"Right…" Ragna admitted scratching the back of his head.

"But you know... Maybe I have something that you can use after all," Sasha told him as she went into her inventory before sending something over to the Reaper. Looking down at the screen before him, he saw that he'd been sent a _Beginner's Cookbook._ "I'm sure you've probably made most of the recipes already in this book, but maybe there's something new for you to try in there."

' _Jubei would have never let me use a cookbook, probably would have thought it would make things too easy for me,'_ Ragna thought to himself as he brought out what he'd been sent and began turning through the pages. ' _And… I probably would've been too prideful to try it for myself.'_ "Thanks… this will probably help me out a lot down the road." Ragna said as he pocketed the book. "Won't you need it though?"

"It's fine; I've already completely copied the pages into my notes and I've even got a more advanced book to work with," she explained before smiling brightly at the Reaper. "If you want to borrow the next one though, you'll have to come back and visit once you've finished with the recipes in that book."

"...You're telling me not be a stranger," the Reaper realized. Sasha nodded as he finally got it. "...It's a promise."

 _Later -Ragna's Campsite-_

"At least it smells decent," Ragna thought to himself, sitting down besides his campfire while his stew cooked over the flame. The kids had spent more time running around than he had planned on, so he'd been greeted by a sky full of false stars upon returning to his campsite. Using the book given to him by Sasha, he'd immediately undergone preparations to make his own simple stew. The cookbook had given him precise instruction including amounts of spices and other ingredients to use along with a proper cooking time. His eyes were sharply focused on the time before him; he'd be damned if he was going to burn his dinner again.

The Reaper would be lying if he didn't feel a little better after spending a day with Sasha and the kids under her care. Seeing the children play as he and Sasha watched over them brought him back to the few carefree years that he'd had, time that he'd spent with those who were now impossible to see. Strange as it sounded, it almost gave a sense of peace to have come full circle a caretaker, even if only for a few hours. Cooking whilst using the instructions given to him on the other hand… that was killing him.

"Bout time I found ya!" a sudden shout sounded off from the edge of his campsite. Ragna didn't have to turn his head. "So this is where you've been hiding for the past week."

"Who's hiding?" he answered, not taking his eyes off of the timer he'd set for even a second. "What are you doing out in the fields so late?"

"Looking for the idiot I'm talking to," Argo the Rat told him as she sat beside the Reaper, giving a small sniff from the pot. "You're cookin?"

"...You can have some if you want," the Reaper told her with a short sigh. "I won't be able to eat it all myself anyways."

"Okay, somethin's up with ya. You'd never off'r me food otherwise," Argo said as she glared at Ragna before poking him in the forehead. "What's got you in such a funk?"

"...Just a little more annoyed at the cooking in this game than I thought I'd be," he admitted with a groan. "Back home, cooking was one of the few things I could take honest pride in… doesn't feel that great to have it stripped of you."

"Eh, you can still fight can't ya? That's probably worth a lot more here anyways," Argo told him with a passe wave of her hand. "Or does cookin' mean more to you?"

"It shouldn't, but I can't help but feel a little frustrated," he told her, opening up to what he was really feeling.

"Is that why you didn't want to cook with Asuna? 'Cause you wanted to be sure _you_ could cook first?"

"Maybe… I don't know, I just wanted to try it out for myself." He let out a lengthy and frustrated sigh. "So what about you then, how did your investigation go?"

"Not great, I haven't had that good of a week m'self," Argo admitted sadly. "I tried asking about that NPC you told me about… no one on this floor has even heard of her and I've asked just about every player I could get into contact with. It's like she doesn't even exist."

"I'm telling you what I saw, and there's no way that person could've been a one off thing," the Grim Reaper told her as the timer finally reached zero. Rising to his feet, he took the pot off of the flame and rested it on the rubble in his campsite.

"And I'm telling you there's no sign of her; either she's nowhere to be found, or she plays a mean game a' hide an' seek," Argo defended while Ragna began cutting a loaf of bread on his cutting board. "Bad new doesn't end there though… I did my best to spread that warning like you asked me to."

"...But we already have losses," Ragna guessed, pausing in his work for all of a moment. "How many?"

"A dozen… at least," Argo told him, staring deep into the fire. "Some of those people were regulars of mine… And we're nowhere closer to clearing this floor."

Ragna didn't have an answer for her, only finishing his work on their supper by slicing the bread and pouring the stew into two dinner bowls for him and his unexpected guest. Heading back to the fireplace, he wordlessly gave her one of the bowls of stew before sitting right beside her.

"It's not much," he started looking down into his own bowl. "...But maybe you'll at least feel better after you've eaten."

It took her a long moment, but the infobroker eventually to her spoon in hand and scooped up a small bit of the stew. Even then she didn't immediately start eating the stew, only bring it closer to sniff a small spoonful. She didn't have anything to comment on the smell and eventually ate the small spoonful she'd been given… and continued her longstanding silence.

' _Looks like I've got another bust,'_ the Reaper thought to himself as he facepalmed once more, growing annoyed at his failure to cook even a basic campfire stew. "Listen, you don't have to finish that if you don't want-"

"Seconds."

Lifting his head up, he saw Argo thrust her empty bowl back at him as she munched on the piece of bread he'd given her. For a long moment, Ragna didn't have anything to say, Eventually he set his bowl on the ground and rose to his feet to grab Argo another serving of stew. After retrieving her a filled second bowl, he finally mustered the courage to try a little himself. It was nothing special… but there was nothing wrong with it. Shrugging, he decided it would have to do after the week he had.

"It's good," Argo complimented as she took a large spoonful out of her bowl and slurped it up.

"I can do better," the Reaper promised her before taking another large bite from his own bowl. "...Much better."

Ragna meant it too.

 _ **Author's Note:**_

 _ **Hey everyone, well the results for the Poll are in and it looks like Floor 4 is going to be going on for a few chapters. Final score 18-11.**_

 _ **I'm now implementing a date system so that it's easier to see the passage of time. It might not go as an exact flow to SAO, but I'm hoping that it at least gives a setting to how each floor is cleared.**_

 _ **Let's take care of the review responses.**_

 _ArmantusCunPinnae:_ Thanks for pointing out the mix up, and yeah it seems people want this one to go on for a while.

 _The Unplanner:_ Another of your in depth reviews, not much to say other than thank you.

 _TheEmeraldMage_ : I'm going to plan on keeping Klein's relationship as awkward as I can… but that doesn't mean he can't be happy.

 _Lightkirinhuruname:_ Hello? Police? I think my safety is at risk if I don't post my chapters for this individual.

 _Reclusive Dork_ : No safe zone would keep those girls safe from Nu, she'd have them scarred in every imaginable way and more.

 _GhostHornet:_ Cleared the air via PM… but maybe if I get enough pressure from the fans, I'll start making the couples official sooner rather than later.

 _Tohoufanatic_ : It's less of them trying to get into his pants and more of a 'trying to get him to be a little more lax' as was seen in the chapter before it.

 _Dracus7_ : Mind posting something else instead of demands for the same story request everytime? I'm sorry, but you seem to be doing this a lot.

 _ **That's all for now! Ciao!**_


	7. The Rat -Part One-

_**Sword XIII: The Rat -Part One-**_

"Thanks fer lettin' me stay in yer tent last night, and fer making breakfast this mornin'," Argo said as she cut into the poached eggs that Ragna had made, accompanied by orange slices, slightly seasoned potato wedges, and a thick slice slice of honey glazed ham. "And you were givin' yourself such a hard time about cooking last night."

"Only reason it tastes halfway decent is because I followed the damn cookbook," he muttered as he took his coffee kettle off the fire and poured himself a large cup for the morning. "If I'd tried one of my old recipes you'd probably be puking up last night's stew."

"Come on, yer putting in the effort even though it's killing you! Once you get the system basics mastered you can start making whatever crazy recipes you want!" the Info Broker told him. "And I'll be there try 'em if ya want."

"What are you? A rat or a guinea pig?" the Reaper insulted as he took a long swig from his mug. "I guess if you're crazy enough to eat my cooking, I'm willing to make you whatever you're in the mood for."

"I'm holding ya to that!" Argo demanded, leaving her guild leader to roll his eyes before smirking. "So how was it sleeping outside your tent?"

"Fine I guess; far from the first time I've had to sleep out in the open and some of those times it was pouring," the Reaper said, thinking back to his time back home when he had to camp out with his master or Tao. "Surprised you slept in so late, I thought _Info Brokers_ had to be up early to sniff out the best info."

"Eh, that's what some people say. Great info can come out any time of the day, the trick is always being ready to cash in when it does," she told him as she took another bite out of her breakfast. "And that said… I'm a _little_ low on money at the moment…"

"...And you didn't tell me until _after_ I let you sleep in my tent and fed you twice?" Ragna asked with a slight scowl. "Forget what I said earlier; you're a damned rat for sure.

"Okay, first off you offered those, so don't pin it on me," Argo defended herself, bringing her breakfast place close almost out of fear that Ragna would take it back. "Second, you'd have probably forced me back into town after giving me the _Col_ , so don't act like you're some _Patron Saint of Poverty_!"

' _Sure as hell never claimed I was one of those,'_ the Reaper thought to himself irately, now thinking back to when he'd been called that back in his home world. ' _...Damn it, that was back with Platinum and that little punk was wearing a damn hood and getting a meal out of me just like Argo is now.'_ "Fine, after we finish eating we can get moving."

"Get moving?" Argo asked, as Ragna took a long swig of his coffee. "What are you talking about, don't ya have a small fortune on ya after all of that fighting?"

"Not anymore, sad to say. I ended up blowing almost all of it last week on ingredients, utensils, and a whole lotta other crap going towards improving my cooking skills," he admitted. ' _...Not like I have a lot to show for it, barely gained any experience towards the skill with all of those failures.'_ "Since both of us are low on money, let's just head out into the fields and earn some money that way. Taking a full day to take out all of my stress on some field monsters already sounds good and if you tag along we can both get some cash for-"

"YOU GOT IT!" Argo screamed before Ragna could finish. The Grim Reaper could've been completely blind and would still be able to see the money induced sparkles his info broker had in her eyes. ' _This is better than any blank check he'd could've given me! Knowin' how crazy Ragna gets in the fields I'll be rich by lunch!'_

' _...I sure as hell hope she knows how nice I'm being right now,'_ Ragna thought with a sigh. "You're still going to have to pull your weight today, I'm not just heading out and sending you the Col later."

"Pft, like I'd give ya the chance! If I let you go off on your own that means I can't earn up that exp and get my level back up to speed," Argo reminded him. "Also, I've got info on a place that's perfect for us. In fact, this little find was the main reason I came ta find ya last night."

' _Then why didn't she just send the info in a message?'_ Ragna internally contemplated. ' _Sure there's some info that she needs to explain in person, but all she'd need for this is one screenshot of the floor map. She's up to something here…'_ "Fine, but I got questions that I want answered while I'm helping you."

"So our agreement from _Floor Two_ is still in effect; the only reason I need ya to work now is 'cause you wasted so much of my time with that little info hunt you had. So feel free to ask me whatever while I'm here with ya! Anything you had in mind right away or ya want me to just spill what I've heard?"

"...Well I did have kind of an odd question about combat," Ragna admitted as he sipped his coffee.

"Combat? From you? The guy who can't seem to get enough of it?" Argo asked him with a shit-eating smirk that could nearly rival Hazama's.

"Don't make me punch your lights out," he growled in threat, though the Info Broker knew he was clearly bluffing. "Though that's actually related to the question I had; is there a system in place for unarmed combat?"

"You mean like that time you somehow downed that Orc leader with those _Black Flames_ in a single punch?" Argo asked, leaving Ragna to realize that Leafa had probably explained that story… and he hoped his info broker hadn't been spreading it just to make a quick buck.

"That's a part of it, but it's not exactly what I'm going for. What I'm using is actually a skill, but what I'm talking about is just a form of combat that doesn't need to rely on activating anything like that." He paused, deciding the way he wanted to form his question. "Okay, let's say that we headed out of this safe zone and I punched you in the jaw. What would I get from that?"

"Blackmail."

' _...Walked right into that one genius,'_ the Reaper admitted with a sigh. "You get what I'm asking though."

"Yeah, and there's a skill that's completely focused on using unarmed attacks. All you gotta do to unlock it is perform 100 successful strikes on monsters or in duels, so it's surprising that you haven't unlocked it yet with that technique, even if you don't bring it out around us."

"Yeah, you're sure it's just a hundred?" Ragna questioned. Sure he'd been relying on his sword almost exclusively to blend in, but he'd been using _**Hell's Fang**_ whenever he had the chance and he'd recently broken _two_ hundred uses. "Well whatever, you think if we got into a duel after breakfast we could-?"

"Save it for the monsters; not letting ya mess up this pretty face!" Argo told him, somehow both looking proud and letting her guild leader know that he should choose his next words carefully.

"...Your whiskers are a nice touch, I can give you that much," the Reaper admitted.

"Charmer," Argo said in response with the proudest smile Ragna had seen on her.

"Don't get used to it. What else do I need to know about the skill?"

"Nothing you couldn't learn just by unlocking it when we head into the fields," Argo promised as she bit into her last orange slice. "Though I should warn ya that it's a big investment. Masterin' that particular skill takes a full million uses."

' _A million? And I thought ten thousand on every weapon skill was asking a lot.'_

"That, and now matter how much you work that skill up using a weapon's always going to be easier and starting off is hell for anyone that tries," she warned him. "You barely get a speed boost fighting weaponless, you lose most of your defensive options out of outright dodging, and it's not going to be easy to make it outclass weapons especially when we get to the higher floors. It's a big investment, difficult to work up, and it might not even be worth your while in the end. There's a reason people haven't been trying it, even those that have taken martial arts IRL. You'd likely be better off taking any other option and saving it for when you're really desperate."

"Let me be the judge of that, I won't know before I've given it a proper try," Ragna told her. "Anything else you want to let me in on?"

"Yeah actually, a little something that you might be interested in. Remember what the day after tomorrow is?"

"December 24th; _Christmas Eve_. Is there something going on that day? Some big party?"

"I think the game's going to be offering plenty of festivities on the floors that are opened on both the Eve an' Christmas day itself, but I can't imagine too many people will be in any mood to celebrate. This will be their first Christmas trapped in the game, and this floor's been particularly hard. Not even anyone in our guild's said anything about celebrating, and we're probably the cheeriest bunch here."

"I'm guessing I'm excluded from that?" Argo didn't even try to answer Ragna's question, nor did she make eye contact. "That figures, so why bring up _Christmas Eve_ in the first place?"

"I'm telling ya because there's an Event Tournament being held on the first floor. It's goin' on all day, matches are all one-on-one, and there's no entry limits. Just participating in the tournament alone would get you a thousand _Col_ as a participation bonus and the rewards just keep getting higher from there. There could be well over a thousand people at this thing! You'd be crazy not to join in!"

' _Damn, I know I haven't exactly been trying to keep a low profile but getting involved here is almost certain to get me exposed for some kind of shit. And if it's one-on-one I can't get the spotlight on someone else like I did with Silica when we first met. Aw shit, but how am I supposed to explain that to everyone else?'_

"You look like you're trying to get out of this after just hearing about it." Argo's word and the sly tone they were spoken with was enough to bring Ragna out of his thoughts. Try as he might, the Reaper knew how futile it was to argue with his Infobroker when she talked like that. "Here's the deal I'll give ya; I'll come up with some sort of excuse for you not joining. Something about you not doing well around the holidays, missing family from home, something like that. You'll have a much better chance of getting out if I'm the one that tells 'em."

"...And in exchange?" Ragna asked. Thankfully he'd already finished his breakfast because the pit forming in his stomach likely wouldn't have left him take another bite.

"In exchange while we're out today and there's no one else to see us… I want to see you fighting all out." As expected, Ragna didn't care for that request. "You don't have to glare at me like that; cross my heart whatever talents you're trying to keep a secret will be safe with me. I'm not trying to have you do this just so that I can get a quick mint selling the info."

"Even though you know this would deepen your pockets from drops," the Reaper growled in accusation. "Why the hell do you want me to do this?"

"Just call it a personal curiosity on how far you can go. I dunno why you want to keep all of those talents you got hidden from everyone, but I know you've gotta be doin' it for a good reason… or do you think I was lyin' when I vouched for you back on floor one?" Her smile turned a bit calmer. "Besides, if I'm the one looking at everything maybe I can help you find something you're not seeing. And if that's still not enough, remember my deal from earlier; either you give front row seats to someone that'll promise not to spread rumors or you're on display for everyone tomorrow."

"Tch… and I thought Rachel knew how to get under my skin," Ragna sighed under his breath, though Argo caught on to that… and couldn't help but wonder who this _Rachel_ was. "Fine, anything _ELSE?_ "

"...More of a suggestion, but you might as well let everyone in the guild know about this too. They've trusted you from the start… you oughta do the same."

"That's pretty high on the _none of your damn business_ charts," he snapped back, dusting himself off as he rose and sent all of his cooking gear to his storage. "Well? Are we heading out or what?"

"Sure, sure," she said as she rose from the rock she'd been sitting on before giving a mischievous giggle. "And I thought I had bad mornings."

"You're pushing it," her leader warned. ' _From Rabbit to Rat… I guess some things can never change.'_

Heading out of the camp, the two hadn't gotten far before they came across their first prey for the day; a cluster of seven _Rock Spiders_. Given the floor's deadly history, a group like this wasn't exactly uncommon but it did serve as a large problem. For average players, a dense grouping like this would have meant a death sentence and most of the higher players would make sure to have their health topped off and hit some of their best parameter boosting skills before engaging. But for Ragna, he knew it was letting these things go that would cause the real risk.

"So how are you doin' this?" Argo asked, glancing behind Ragna to the still chipped _Aramasa_ that rested on his back. "We cut their numbers down first and then you'll start playing around with your unarmed combat? That seems like the safest choice here."

"You said I'd have a million attacks to make before my unarmed combat is completely mastered; might as well get a running start now and obtain the ability," Ragna told her as he cracked his knuckles. "For now just sit back and watch. This is my time to cut loose."

 **(Cue** _The King of Fighters XIII -Wild Street-_ **)**

"Cut loose?" she repeated with a smirk. "You're saying it like this is fun for you."

"I mean… maybe it is," he admitted coyly.

"There ya go, now someone's in a good mood!" Argo commented. "See, sometimes even the idea busting loose is just what you need!"

"Shut up," Ragna ordered, though the well meant smirk on his face indicated that he was actually being a bit playful here.

Heading forward, he got just close enough for the spiders to notice him and start scurrying forward. To anyone with arachnophobia the sight would be enough to send them into shock and those without might at least start to develop a case, especially when the spiders leaped into the air to come down on him with its venomous fangs. While Argo was expecting him to dodge and counter, Ragna's return answer was a brutal uppercut that sent the monster flying straight up into the air. Spinning his body, Ragna let loose a rough roundhouse kick followed with a left hook, blasting back two more spiders before the first had even hit the ground. Raising his leg, he slammed that first enemy to the ground before reeling back and driving his fist down onto its head. Drop kicking the arachnid and sending it to the side away from the gathering monsters, Ragna transitioned into his classic _**Hell's Fang**_ to connect while it was still falling and finally finished it off.

' _All that for one measly spider? Argo wasn't kidding when she said this started off weak,'_ Ragna thought as he performed a crouching punch, low kick, and (eight) leg sweep combination. Raising to gain some height, he let loose a powerful straight punch and sent the monster sliding back. Leaping into the air, he avoided the rest of the spiders before bringing his leg down and damaging the second of the spiders before performing another _**Hell's Fang**_ and finishing it off. ' _Might as well keep cutting loose and getting in as many hits as I can.'_

Stepping back as one of the spiders tried whacking him with a stony leg, Ragna punished the move with a lunging punch before using an alternating six hook barrage and sending the monster airborn with an uppercut. Leaping up after his target, Ragna spun into midair backhand before a closeup knee and finished by sending the monster to the ground with a vicious downward spike. Flipping forward, he then brought both of his fists down and caused the monster to finally shatter.

' _How is he able to do that!? I know that you'd be able to get away with some really crazy movement options using this game's engine, but I never thought you could do something like this!'_ Argo thought as she watched Ragna overwhelm the spiders and destroy his fourth in another barrage of attacks. ' _Still, he ain't using any real fighting form that I can see. Is… is he just fighting on instinct and ability?'_

Rushing forward to the grouped up final three spiders, now Ragna let loose a flurry of kicks that managed to knock two of them back. Drop kicking the final one and sending into the air, he launched a backhand before going in with an uppercut and juggling the beast in his combo. With the monster above him in the air Ragna's _**Hell's Fang**_ wouldn't be able to hit the monster and using his sword for an _**Inferno Divider**_ would defeat the point of working up his unarmed attacks… luckily now he had a third attack he could break out.

" _ **Gauntlet Hades!**_ "

The Reaper had only recently recovered this move through performing his _**Hell's Fang**_ technique a set number of times, so he'd been waiting for a chance to break it out. The move still lacked its _Soul Eater_ follow up attack much like the rest of his moves, but it was still useful for a combo. After connecting with the dark kick, Ragna threw his entire body forward in a powerful body check before coating his right arm in the same black flames.

" _ **Hell's Fang!**_ " he shouted, lunging forward and finishing off yet another of the spiders. ' _Dammit, let myself get carried away for a second there… Let's hope Argo didn't notice.'_

...Are you kidding? She's an _Info Broker_ ; it's her job to notice.

' _Why is he shouting out the names for his moves now; he never had to do that when he used 'em before, so why start now?'_ she thought to herself as she watched Ragna continue to fight. Admitting she sort of liked this dorkier side to the person calling themselves the Grim Reaper, she decided to cheer him on. "HIT 'EM WITH ANOTHER OF THOSE FANGS!"

Taking his eyes off of the final two spiders, he glanced at Argo and saw that she was serious. In fact it almost looked like she was into it. Smirking as one of the spiders leapt for him, he decided he'd just have to go for it.

" _ **Hell's Fang!**_ " he yelled as he caught the spider in the air with his empowered lunge. " _ **Gauntlet Hades**_ **!"** Flipping around in the air, he managed to catch the monster in the air before clotheslining it with his arm and finishing it off, leaving one monster remaining.

Leading with a front kick before whipping his leg around in a roundhouse, Ragna spun again and did another sweep to knock the monster off the ground before lunging and blasting it back. Rushing forward one final time before sliding to a stop in front of the monster and reeling back, the Reaper roared as he let loose a deadly haymaker swing with his arm and finished the final _Rock Spider_ , finally turning it into glass shards.

 **(End theme)**

"Might've taken longer than I'd liked it to, but I guess I can't complain too much," Ragna admitted as the results screen from his last session of combat came up. He'd gain decent experience from that fight, but he knew he was still quite a ways off from reaching his next level. Decent cut of _Col_ as well and he'd found some of the floors usual item drop. Alone, that was all he could've usually hoped for from this normal encounter, but he also saw that he'd learned a new skill; _Martial Arts_. "Alright, looks like I got it."

"You got something alright," Argo told him as she approached, closing her own results screen without so much as glancing at the half of spoils she'd obtained. "When you were asking me about this earlier I thought you were some kind of badass _Black Belt_ or something. Even if it was enhanced by the game, what you just showed off was Street Brawlin' at best, like _I don't want my opponent to ever get back up_ Street Brawlin' _._ "

"Oi oi, what does it matter how I'm fighting? I beat them, didn't I? Not to mention I managed to unlock the _Martial Arts_ ability that you told me about," he told her as he was about to close his own screen.

"Hold up, can't I at least look at what the ability is all about?" she asked him. "What I gave you was just the brief synopsis, but I still need to know about the specifics. This is fresh info for the market after all."

"So you were just looking to make a profit," Ragna groaned with a sigh as he opened the information.

"Maybe there is a profit in here for me, but think about this for a second. You're probably the first person in the game that's actually gone and bothered risking their neck for this skill… and I'm kind of doubting that most people could ever use it like you do. If I get the real details here, maybe we'll find something in the information that'll speed us on our way to clearing this game."

"...Fine, knock yourself out," the Reaper eventually conceded as he clicked on the skill he obtained so that it would show Argo what it was all about. Since he had his Info Broker here to summarize the information for him, Ragna didn't start reading just yet and gave Argo her reading room.

"So it looks like I was right about the million uses to master, but there's a lot more to it than just that. For this skill it also matters how you're attacking as well. There's also a set of passives each tied to certain types of attacks, like _Jabs, Straights, Uppercuts,_ and especially lucky for you _Roundhouse Kicks_. Each of those takes ten thousand uses to master, but each time you use those it also goes back to the overarching ability. With me so far?"

"Think so. So that means I need to mix up the kinds of attacks I'm using so I can max all of my options out?"

"That'd be my suggestion, 'cause each move also has different properties. Like between _Jabs_ and a _Straight Punch_. The _Jabs_ come out much quicker, but if you can land a _Straight_ before your opponent gets their attack off you'll do additional damage and leave them stunned from your attack fer longer. A _Knifehand Strike_ has a higher chance of dealing critical hits while using _Clawing Attacks_ can sometimes inflict a bleeding status for extra damage. Stuff like that might seem small at first, but it can cover a lot if you don't have the right weapon for the job. I'd look at all of the skills they've got for you to choose from and figure out just how you'll want to mix up your usual approach to combat… if you're still interested in fightin' like this of course."

"I don't give up that easily; you can count on me sticking with this for at least a while," Ragna told her.

"Figured… but there's one thing that's still bothering me. It's about this weird red text. Says that _Techniques using the_ _ **Azure Grimoire**_ _won't be counted towards the total, even if the attacks lack a weapon._ You've got any idea what that means?"

' _Shit, what?_ ' Ragna thought as he looked over the ability. Much like Argo said, there was a footnote in red text; indicating that it was the kind of information that would only be applied to him inside _Sword Art Online. 'Dammit! I didn't think it would be tied to something that was already in the game! I thought the only entries I got would be my equipment and exclusive skills! I guess this explains why I haven't unlocked the ability until now, but I've got a huge problem here!'_

"Is that some kind of book? Ya don't look like the reading type, those cookbooks yer bein' forced ta read excluded," Argo noted, snapping Ragna out of his thoughts and letting him realize that he now had an explanation he needed to give. Waiting any further would eventually lead to issues of trust and it was about to come out sooner or later, even if Argo kept her word. Better to have his story straight now while he had the chance.

"It's…" ' _Can't tell her the real truth, not without looking like some kind of maniac… but I need to keep it simple.'_ "It was something I found back on floor one… Inside some sort of ruined church." ' _If I can keep it close to what actually happened, it'll be even easier to keep the story straight… Come on, think back to the first floor.'_ "This… this was back before I'd met any of you… and it wasn't long after they'd revealed what this death game really was. I was wandering around on my own; somehow…"

Ragna had been about to claim that he'd been running around trying not to think that he could die at any moment, but reconsidered. Doing that didn't make much sense… and he had a feeling Argo could see through that sort of lie, she'd known him long enough to see through that much.

"I can't say I knew what the hell I was doing, most of my time out was an honest blur to me… even now I have a hard time remembering anything back then."

"Yeah, most of us were like in some way," Argo said with a nod, thinking back to some of players that _hadn't_ taken it as well as Ragna had. "So where did you get that _Grimoire_ thing?"

"I don't know where, I didn't even know how to use my map at the time." That wasn't a lie, he had needed Yuuki and Agil to teach him where to find it. "Eventually I found the hollowed ruins of a church out in the plains. I thought I was getting into some sort of trap for a monster, but there wasn't anyone else in sight. No players, monsters, not even a breeze; everything felt dead still. I took a look around this place and found a door leading to a basement where I found the book. I took it… and the next thing I knew I was on my back just outside the _Town of Beginnings_ the next morning." Letting out a deep sigh, he grabbed his right sleeve and pulled it back to reveal his _BlazBlue_ in all dark wrapped glory. "With this."

"So it changed shape to some sorta gauntlet?" Argo asked as she looked around the arm to get a better look.

"Maybe, either that or it took up my entire damn arm. Either way I haven't been able to take it off so it's here to stay," he explained. He noticed that Argo was scratching her chin as she looked him over, clearly never seeing anything of the sort before with all of her information gathering skills. Moving to Ragna's other arm, she pulled the sleeve back in wonder of what she could find. Luckily for Ragna his left artificial arm had been made by none other Kokonoe, and the materials used was bio-material straight out of Lambda's test tube. It was a near perfect replica of his old arm in every way and those few ways it could possibly differ couldn't be seen by the naked eye, especially if you had no idea what to look for. "Mind letting that go?"

"Sure sure, but I never thought your arms were so ripped under that coat, were you some sort of muscle freak before you got trapped here? That might explain a thing or two actually." Ragna had a hard time seeing that as a compliment. "But it's weird that the glove on your left matches the one on your right, unless you somehow got all of this equipment when you grabbed the book."

"...Yep, that's basically what happened. Nothing original about me, it was all just that damn book," he tried to tell her off and explain all of his uniqueness since he'd been given the chance. The irony of the situation wasn't lost on him; back home he was always warned to never treat the _Azure Grimoire_ as a part of him, now he was claiming that the cursed artifact was every bit of his strength to save his cover.

"Damn. From what Lisbeth's been telling me that special equipment of yours starts out as your everyday basic equipment, but if ya spend the time upgrading it you'll still be able to use it on the top floors no sweat. ...Still seems weird that you'd be able to find abilities and equipment that's exclusive only to you, especially on _Floor One_."

"Don't blame it on me; I ain't the guy that wrote the damn rules," Ragna informed as he finally closed his menu. "Let's get going; I want to grab lunch after this and if we end up eating in a city you're paying for it."

"...Ya know I don't believe that?"

"You can't even pick me up lunch? Just how stingy are you?" the Reaper asked with an eye roll.

"Not that, about what ya said earlier about yer book." Ragna's eyes narrowed as she took a deep breath. "I don't believe it's all some damn item that's doing all of this."

"And I'm telling you that's what it is," he tried asserting again to protect his own lie.

"Nah, in fact I don't think it's doin' much at all. Some special abilities? Maybe. Some rare armor and an awesome sword? Sure, why not? But you…" Argo poked him in the chest as she stared up into the Reaper's heterochromia eyes. "No _Grimoire_ could cause the kind of stuff that you do. Running inta battle without a care in the world, fightin' tooth and nail ta save someone ya just met, fixin' someone's phobia. What you do could nev'r be created by something from the game itself, even if you're trying to tell yourself it is."

"...Tch." Ragna broke eye contact with Argo as he proceeded onward. "It's easy to pull off that shit when you're packing something overpowered like I've got."

"See? Not giving yourself an ounce worth of credit," she said to him with a smile as she followed closely behind. "Also, I want yer cooking for lunch; gotta help ya build that skill up, right?"

' _Amaterasu almighty, this girl…'_

 _Later -Dungeon Entrance-_

"This is your big plan for today? Just tackle some dungeon?" Ragna asked as he stood with Argo at the entrance of what appeared to be a ruined temple. It had taken them quite a while to get here and it felt like this place was in the middle of nowhere. "If you wanted levels and _Col_ , there were plenty of closer spots."

"True, but here there won't be any eyes keeping you from cutting loose and you might actually need to do it here; 'place is nasty from what I've gathered. Only a few player groups have ever gone into this place… and not without a few fatalities."

"Something tells me your game here isn't high risk high reward," Ragna guessed as he started leading them inside. "So you think this is the _Floor Dungeon?"_

"I really hope it ain't, the way it was talked about by my sources it sounded a lot more like one of those areas that's way too tough when you first find it, but you can come back later for some decent finds and really good grinding if you remember. I'm thinkin' if you can find a few pieces of really strong gear this early on, it'll go a long way to clearing the game."

"You know that I'm going to hold onto this gear till the day I die, right?" he reminded.

"Well then you can give it to someone in our guild that can put it to use or have Liz sell it, or hope that you can find the right materials in there to upgrade your stuff now. For all you know this place could end up bein' a goldmine of rare finds. We won't know until we scope this place out."

"I guess you've got a point, but doesn't this seem kind of familiar?" Ragna asked as he glanced around the ruins. "Back when you and I first met it was in a dungeon that also had monsters you weren't supposed to fighting." He shot her a cocky smirk. "You're not going to need me to save you again, are you?"

"Nope! 'Cause at the moment I'm saving your hide!" Argo told him as she grabbed the Reaper's arm and kept him from walking forward. "You were just about to set off a trap; a poisoned needle one by the looks of it."

"You sound pretty confident about that, but I don't see anything," Ragna said as he looked at the dungeon floor in front of him.

"'Course you can't; unlike me you haven't been training yer _Detect Traps_ skill," she explained as she passed him by and knelt at the floor. "That or yer _Disarm Traps_ skill." Ragna wasn't sure what she'd done, but the group suddenly gave off a shattered glass effect indicating something had been destroyed. "Lucky for you, I'm here with both."

"Huh, thanks I guess," Ragma said, showing Argo a rare display of genuine gratification. "Are these things common in dungeons?"

"It depends on the dungeon, but the fact that we found one this early on could mean trouble. I don't think that traps on this floor would outright kill you, but if you got caught by a monster fight afterwards or while you were fleeing you'd be in trouble. If yer gonna insist on doing these dungeons alone, I suggest you either start learning how to detect the traps yourself or start bringing me alone for explorations. Whoop, almost forgot." Opening her menu, she started creating a map of the dungeon. "With this I should be able to make some pretty decent _Col._ "

"So you're grabbing info that no one else will have access to, giving you a leg up in the market. Smart move." Now it was Ragna's turn to put his arm out to stop Argo as he pushed the shorter lady behind him. "Something's up ahead."

"Spiders?" Argo asked as she went for her dagger.

"Nope, something new," he explained as the new enemies approached them. "What the hell?"

These new monsters were humanoid in appearance and dressed in torn, musty robes. Their skin was an unhealthy gray and looked like it was barely hanging onto their boney bodies. Their eyes were sunken deep and their hair was greasy and matted over their heads. The most telling part about them was the spider fangs extending awkwardly from their mouths and their clawed hands gripping their rusted ceremonial daggers. The names above each of them read _Arachnid Cultist._ There were three creatures now, but Ragna could hear more of them and could hear more of them coming from further down the hallway.

"These things are still new so we got next to no data on 'em, but I think they can poison you with their fangs if you let them get close enough. Other than that, watch out for their daggers until we know what weapon skills they have access to," Argo warned. "You take this batch on, I'll stay back focus on learnin' what I can."

(Cue Ragna's Theme _Rebellion II_ )

"All right, just make sure you take good notes," Ragna reminded as he walked forward towards the new threat. ' _Now that I know what I'm doing with my unarmed attacks, let's see how close I can get to fighting with my old style.'_

Starting by letting loose a straight to the cultist on his right, Ragna managed interrupt their attack and sent them reeling back from the well placed attack to the face. Taking his sword off his belt with his left hand, he easily deflected a knife attack from the other cultist before smashing it in the chest with a roundhouse kick, carving into it with his _Aramasa_ , and delivering a _**Hell's Fang**_ to its face to finish it off. Much like Argo has suspected, one of the monsters went for a fang attack to poison Ragna, but the Reaper wasn't having any of the as he roughly impaled them straight through their chest before tearing the blade upwards and causing intense damage. Placing both hands on the sword's handle, Ragna unleashed his _Blast_ two-handed sword, before flipping his body around and giving it a good _**Gauntlet Hades**_ to finish the job. Landing to his feet, the final cultist came at him from behind him with a sword skill charged knife. Figuring he'd test how strong these things were, Ragna let the attack hit him full force. Even if visually his body reacted the same way to attacks as any other player in _SAO_ , he didn't have their pain dampeners and felt the full force of the blow like he would in real life… not that getting viciously carved into was anything new to him. That one single strike was enough to take a solid third of his health, just proving Argo's point on how dangerous these things were.

"My turn, _**Inferno Divider!"**_ Ragna's upward slash was forceful enough to carry both of them off of their feet. With how well this move had served him in the past, as soon as it had unlocked Ragna had trained with it constantly, using it more than any other move at his disposal and then some. Thanks to this, Ragna had unlocked two of the move's three follow up attacks. Uppercutting the airborne monster with a follow up punch before using another to send it into the wall, the monster bounced off the said and allowed Ragna time to land before catching the monster midair with a claw attack (think his _Guard Crush_ , but without the transforming arm yet) and bringing it to the ground before roundhousing it followed by another sword impalement to finish it off.

"More on the way!" Argo called out before tossing running up beside Ragna and holding out a healing potion for him to take. "Top off yer health while you got a chance to, I'm not up fer taking risks here."

Though Ragna knew he'd be fine, he still took the item and down the potion in one gulp. Being reckless was a large part of who he was even now, but if it kept Argo mind at ease during the fight he was willing to suck in his pride. Approaching quickly with a beast like ferocity was four more cultists, but these were equipped with odd spears topped with a spider insignia.

"Info never said they could use spears!" Argo said as she readied her dagger. "That extra range could mean trouble!"

"Then stay close," Ragna ordered making a quick series of slashes to deflect three of the spears before holding back the last with the wide end of his sword.

"Not _Stay back and let me handle this?_ Yer goin' soft!" Argo shouted as she struck one of the creatures across with a dagger skill before chaining into another.

"No, I'm getting smart; I know that you'd never listen if I told you that," Ragna grunted before blocking two additional spear attacks and pulling Argo out of the way as a third knocked the hood from her head. " _Now_ stay behind me."

"Funny," Argo commented, though seeing one of the spearman trying to flank Ragna while he fought off the other three she realized that Ragna needed her there. "You could've just asked me to watch your back."

"You'd have charged me double," the Reaper answered with a smirk. " _ **Hell's Fang!"**_ Connecting with a fist of darkness on the middle cultist, Ragna then went for a one-handed _Horizontal Slash_ to the second one. Though he seldom used the form, Ranga rushed the last one with a knife hand attack on the monster that Argo had already damaged before clawing it and finishing it off.

Ignoring her guild leader's comments at the moment, Argo sidestepped to avoid her opponent's thrust before rushing in for three quick stabs. Ducking under the lancer's swing, she brought her dagger up in a skill charge upcut dealing solid damage. Forced to block the lance's next swing with her knife, the force of blow was still enough to carry Argo sliding on the floor. Planting her feet down, she managed to hold her footing in the blade struggle before throwing the attack off and leaving the monster open. Using one last knife skill she cut the creature across its side and managed to finish it off.

' _I'll be damned, for an info exchanging rat she actually knows how to fight,'_ Ragna thought to himself with a smirk as he blasted one of the cultists into the air with an uppercut. ' _Guess I don't have much of an excuse yet.'_ " _ **Gauntlet Hades!"**_ Hitting the airborne target with attack, he kept them from landing long enough to activate his _Blast_ Two-Handed Sword Skill. Dodging the lunge from the final cultist Ragna managed to counter with another straight as they went for a follow up attack. Transforming the _Aramasa_ into its true scythe form, Ragna used the massive weapon to knock the monster airborne before bringing down with a heavily charged _Smash_ axe skill. Argo felt the dungeon around her shake at the impact before the monster exploded into glass shards.

(End theme)

"And that's a wrap," Ragna said as he reverted the _Aramasa_ before twirling it around a few times and set it back in on his belt. "So what did we learn today?"

"That you've got one of the weirdest way of fightin' that I've ever seen in this game," Argo answered. "Seriously, mixing yer Street Brawlin' and sword work like that, who would ever try something that crazy?"

"Uh, I would?"

"...Point made, now let's keep going. We still have a ton of this place to explore and I need to make sure info's on the market by the end of today."

"Fine, just warn me if I'm about to step into any of those damn traps," the Reaper said as he started walking down, only for Argo to follow closely beside him.

"So, can I ask ya something personal?" she asked, looking up at her guild leader.

"If you do I'm charging you."

"That's low."

"I'm just taking a page out of your book, rat."

"Ouch, but how's about you tell me who Rachel is?" Argo smirked as she saw Ragna's flinch. "Strike a nerve, did I? You said something about her back at camp."

"...Just how the two of you really seem to know how to get under my skin," he said thinking back. "I guess now that you mention it you do also have the whole animal nickname thing going."

"Seriously?" Argo asked, stopping Ragna before he walked into another trap. "Dang there are a lot of these. So what was Rachel's nickname and how'd she get it?"

"I mean I call it a nickname, but in reality all I did was come up with an insult for her," Ragna admitted, before considering that after that it was really just what he called her by most of the time. "If you gotta know I called her _Rabbit_."

"Rabbit, eh? Where'd you come up with the nickname?"

"Appearance, so it was really basic. She had pigtails that she always tied up with the black ribbons. They shot up in a weird way that kind of reminded me of Rabbit ears, so the nickname just stuck. Never said it was an inspired choice, just what came to me."

"No, actually I like it," Argo admitted as she finished working on the traps and caused the shattering effect. "So, just cause I was curious. I-"

"You were wondering if she was my girlfriend so you could sell it as gossip for a mint, weren't you?" Now it was Argo turn to freeze as Ragna looked down at her with a scowl. "I think I'm starting to come up with some new nicknames for you, and they ain't flattering."

"S-Says the guy that goes by _Grim Reaper_ and _Bloodedge!"_ the Info Broker shot back.

"So? I like those names, what's your point?" the Reaper retorted. "She… We weren't close in _that_ way. But she did always mean a lot to me, even if I wasn't the best at showing it. Though to be fair she wasn't that much better; always looking down at me with some quip or insult." He couldn't help but give a soft smile. "And damn it all if I don't miss her."

"Eh, miss her all you want. You'll just have to come up with some insults to get back at her once you clear the game, right?" Ragna didn't answer her, only keeping his gaze forward as he proceeded deeper into the ruins. "She's waiting for you outside… isn't she?"

"She's…" Ragna had been about to say that she was dead, but realized how disrespectful that would be to her memory. The two had been through more hell than they'd ever like to admit. Rachel was too damn stubborn to die, just like he'd been. He settled for a hollow truth. " _Gone._ "

"O-Oh, sorry..." Argo tried to apologize. She then felt Ragna's glowed hand ruffling her hair which was still uncovered by her hood.

"Don't worry about it," he told her, smirking with a forlorn sigh. "I just think back to her and the others every now again. It's not much, but I guess it'll do right by her in the best way I know how."

' _I knew that Ragna was hiding a softa side under all his crass, but I guess he's better at hiding his baggage than I thought,'_ Argo considered as she put her hood back on. "So you said that Rachel wasn't yers, but didya have a girlfriend IRL?"

"Nah, never really had the time or interest of finding one if you can believe that," the Reaper admitted. "Might've been hard to do with the way I am anyways; always swearing and scowling probably wasn't helping my case."

"Probably not, but if they couldn't stand that they probably weren't right for ya in the first place. 'Course some of us here just happen to think it's part of yer charm."

"My… charm?" the Reaper repeated, never expecting his attitude to be found charming. "Is that what you think about it?"

"Ya want to know that, ya gotta pay up," Argo informed him with a playful wink.

"...Think I'll save the cash, and I meant what I said about charging you for personal questions."

Even if he'd been given pain dampeners in the game like the rest of the player base, Ragna was fairly certain Argo's swift kick to his shin would hurt regardless.

 _Later_

"Might not be a floor boss room, but I still knew I had a good feeling about this place," Argo said to Ragna proudly.

The two of them had explored this dangerous place in full, dismantling several annoying traps and fighting through hordes of deadly enemies across the multitude of branching paths. Argo had completed her mapping, leaving the two with a full layout of the dungeon save for the chamber before then.

"A golden glowing door at the end of a long corridor is pretty telling of that," Ragna agreed, acting casual but surprisingly curious on what this meant for the two. "Never seen a something like this before."

"Then leave it ta Argo to fill ya in! That right there is what's known as a _Treasure Chamber._ These things are rare finds, especially this early into the game's 100 floors. Big rewards and no big nastys inside to keep you from claiming it."

"So it's your basic dungeon boss room, but without a boss on the other side," Ragna summarizes.

"In a lot of ways yeah, but it's a bit more complicated than that. Down the line there might be dungeons filled with both _Treasure Chambers_ and a _Boss Chamber_ inside, meaning it well worth your time to explore everywhere you can… so long as you don't get killed."

"Don't have to remind me of that," Ragna told her, far from disappointed he'd have to face off against another boss.

"Fact that the door is gold is even better; means we're the first ones to find this place. Treasure rooms are like dungeon boss rooms since you can only clear them once per day. The rewards you get out of 'em come from a predetermined list with items of differin' value. When you find a gold door like this though, it means the item you'll obtain will always be the best this place can offer."

"So it's a race to find these, but what happens after the first person grabs its treasure?"

"Then it reset at midnight and anyone can grab it. The door also changes from gold to silver. Silver doors aren't nearly as good, but at least with them you're still guaranteed something high tier or better. After the tenth group hits a silver door though, it turns to bronze. You can get any of the room's drops at that point and some of them can be depressing, like a slightly better healing potion. It's still a find, but it'll be a slog having to check back once per day."

"And even then you've gotta be the first one to open it that day," Ragna finished as Argo gave him a nod in confirmation. "Well, might as well see if the big drop is something we can use. Think people will buy info for a silver door?"

"'Course they will, but this dungeon's still pretty dangerous for most people to get through. But the two of us mapped it out, got info on the monsters inside, and recorded where the traps spawn. I think anyone with this would be able to make a semi-safe plan at least. Just to be safe I won't sell the info to anyone too low a level. If I did their treasure hunt would just become a suicide march."

' _Huh, didn't know that she was this careful with who she sold her info to. Up until this point, I figured that she'd just been selling whatever she could to whoever she could just so she could end up with an easy profit. Maybe she's putting more effort into this Info Broker work more than I thought.'_

Leaving thoughts of Argo's underlying considerate nature there (and far too stubborn to inform her of such thoughts), Ragna roughly shoved open the massive golden door. The _Treasure Chamber_ didn't look any different than the rest of the dungeon, just a small room with a large golden treasure chest awaiting the two against the far wall. The Reaper let Argo proceed in front of him, just to make sure that there were no traps as a final _F You_ from the dungeon. Luckily, there weren't and Argo quickly undid the top of the chest to reveal…

"Nice, a Smithing Mallet," she said as she took out the heavily polished bronze hammer. "Thing will probably give some mighty fine upgrades, might even offer a couple of unique bonuses when it's used to craft something."

"Great, you can go ahead and give it to Lisbeth then; I'm sure she'll be grateful for her new smithing toy," Ragna said as he turned and started heading for the exit.

"Come on, we can both give it ta her. You could probably use a couple of upgrades on yer gear anyways, exclusive stuff or not." Her guild leader only gave her a modest shrug, not stopping in his walk out or turning to face her. Rolling her eyes at his usual standoffish behavior, Argo followed beside him once again. "That and… I was thinkin' we should stick together for a while, long as it was alright with you."

"Really?" Ragna asked with an eyebrow raised. Usually he didn't work with anyone for an extended period of time, even those from his guild. Sinon had been an exception, but that had been more of Leafa's request than her own. He didn't have anything seriously against it, but he didn't find the need to become a completely social person just because he'd given in and founded his own guild. "What brought this on?"

"Just the fact that this floor's really deadly and the sooner it's cleared the better," she informed. "Look, you might be good when it comes ta fightin'. Hell, I doubt there's anyone in this game that holds a candle to what you can do, but yer still clueless when it comes to the _SAO_ system itself."

"Normally when you ask someone for a favor it's a bad idea to insult them to their face when you do," Ragna muttered. "All the same, it's hard to say that you're wrong after all of the info you gave me today. So you're thinking of doing a brain and brawn sort of thing? You find the clues we need to clear this floor and I'll be what gets you there in the first place?"

"'Xactly, knew you'd see it my way!" Argo told him eagerly.

"I haven't said I'd agreed to it yet, and I'm not going to be able to watch your back ever fight we get into."

"Maybe not, but at least with me around you'll be able to go all out without any fear of someone finding out yer secrets before it's time," Argo told him. "I'm already in the know, so you might as well stick with me over anyone else."

"...Alright, but only for a bit. You still need to be my excuse for getting out of that tournament on Christmas Eve."

"That's a deal, I'll give ya that day to solo play and around that we can work on getting off of this stupid floor," the info broker said before giving Ragna a light punch to his ribs. "Fer now at least, the two of us are partners!"

"That's great and all, but if you're staying with me then it looks like I'm going to be sleeping outside for a while," he realized, scratching the back of his head as he realized what he'd signed up for.

"Don't forget cookin' fer me! That's part of the deal too!" Argo reminded excitedly. "Speaking of which, I'm starving! What's on the menu for lunch?"

' _...It's weird; I know I should be annoyed by that kind of attitude, normally I'd be swearing my head off at this point, and it's surprising I haven't threatened to kick her out yet.'_ Ragna looked down at Argo, catching sight of her mischievous smiling face as she awaited his answer for lunch plans. He gave a deep sigh. ' _But for some damned reason, I'm actually starting to enjoy this.'_

 _ **Author's Note**_

 _ **For the love of- HOW LATE IS THIS CHAPTER!? …Well there's kind of a reason for it.**_

 _ **Besides some growing chaos in my day to day life, I've actually been working on this chapter for a full month (my last update was on Valentine's Day). The reason this one took so long to get out was actually due to a rewrite when I was nearly done two weeks in. I had an idea for how I was going to handle this chapter, but by the end I realized that I was basically having Ragna break the game… on floor 4 of 100.**_

 _ **Maybe I will have a chapter down the line where Ragna actually does manage to do something that breaks the game completely and Kayaba has to do his best to either cope with it or fix the issue, but it seems a little earlier to be trying something like that, fun as it might be. Big thanks to Paladin9800 for the follow up idea that turned into this chapter's premise. Let's get to the reviews.**_

 _Kerrowe:_ I've always loved writing small little happenings between characters. Not everything has to be a world changing event.

 _Lightkirinhuruname_ : Easy there Vergil…

 _The Unplanner_ & _MIDKNIGHT The Fallen One_ : Thanks for another summary, can always count on you two for those.

 _Reclusive Dork_ : I think Argo and the others are giving him enough of one already… according to him.

 _TheEmeraldMage_ : Ragna in Food Wars would be interesting, but that'd be a big project to tackle since I'd I've to do plenty of research into food to accommodate.

 _ENDDRAGON369_ : Huh, for me the pepper shakers were the second easiest. My easiest was the flambe one.

Guest: She's… there.

 _Wlyman2009_ : Yeah, most of the time it's 'Ragna can cook? That's nice. Let's have him kill something.'

 _Hellifrit_ : Well it can't be all sunshine and rainbows for our dear Reaper (god knows he'd have earned some though).

 _Dxhologram_ : Don't worry about it, I like to take my time when it comes to building up the romance payoffs (to some chagrin admittedly)

 _Shiroyasha Rises_ : Don't worry, I plan to give Yuuki some proper time in the sun coming up.

Guest (2): Just did

 _Son Leo Vermillion_ : This will likely turn into a harem story unless everyone either thinks that Ragna should stay single (which seems unlikely), should be paired with an OC I make (nearly as unlikely), or simply enjoys the dynamic of two characters enough to keep it at that.

 _ **Until next time! Ciao!**_


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